Crafting Success in Business and Life with Sam Blahnik
November 7, 2024
What happens when three friends mix cocktails and talk shop? Join Ryan Freng and John Shoemaker as they welcome Sam Blahnik, an expert in agricultural economics, for a lively chat that starts with a discussion about the quirky concept of “corn sweats” and takes us on a journey through Sam’s career from his Wisconsin roots to the State Department of Agriculture. With a Bovardier cocktail in hand, we explore the evolution of team dynamics and decision-making in today’s business landscape. Discover why every employee, from the office manager to the executive assistant, plays a crucial role in shaping a company’s image and sales efforts.
Business ownership isn’t all meetings and bylaws—it’s also about flexibility and creativity, particularly when adversity strikes. We share insights on how Sam’s company rebranded as 1848, embracing their Wisconsin heritage, and discuss the intentional structure that helps them minimize overhead. Listen in as we highlight the importance of real-world experience over formal education in some career paths, and why humility and collaboration can prevent blind spots in ownership structures. Our stories aim to shine a light on how businesses can adapt and thrive in today’s ever-changing environment.
Balancing work and life isn’t easy, especially in our always-connected world. We open up about the struggle between extroversion and introversion and how meaningful interactions are key to building lasting professional relationships. Our conversation shifts to the intersection of work and family, drawing parallels with past lifestyles where these aspects were more integrated, like in farming communities. Through personal anecdotes, we reflect on how intentionality in family interactions can enhance well-being and advocate for a harmonious balance that enriches both family life and professional success.
Topics in This Episode
- (00:00:06) Business Development and Ownership Transition
- (00:14:00) Team Dynamics and Decision-Making
- (00:24:11) Company Structure and Evolution
- (00:36:08) Work-Life Balance and Introversion
- 00:40:09) Navigating Work-Life Balance and Family Involvement
- (00:47:27) Parenting Perspectives and Intentionality
- (00:58:47) Communication in Marriage and Business
- (01:10:48) Reverse Engineering and Storytelling
Transcript
Ryan Freng:
all right, what’s up? Welcome back to another. Let’s pick backflip happy hour. I’m ryan fring, one of the co-creative directors. Joining me, as always, is john shoemaker. How’s it going, john? It’s going great. Joining you at some time as sometimes that’s right, it’s like one in four john will be here. Um, but we’ve actually been talking. It took a little bit of time to get this set up because Luke wasn’t here our Luke of all trades and that means John and I have to do it, and Maria helped and we’re a little slower, but we’re here, we’re excited. Thanks, sam, for joining us.
Ryan Freng:
I couldn’t pass up putting this on the calendar. Well, and we always joke too about how our relationship is, basically like we hang out and drink, like we party is kind of like our relationship, and I was like I like that about it, like I see you. Whenever I see you, it’s at an exciting event and we just hang out and talk. Sometimes there’s coffee, usually it’s more. Yeah, maybe there’ll be coffee later. Yeah, well, I don’t want to interrupt the elk conversation. Elk conversation, you guys can continue the conversation. I’m going to get some stuff out and actually make us a drink. How’s that sound? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I mean we were just talking about the beginning of the school year getting started and it’s been hot, but like those first few that week when it got cool, it was just like oh, cool night, oh, it was amazing Getting darker a little bit, just a little bit earlier, and I was like this is a good time of year. I love this time. We ran Norfolk last weekend, I just mowed the lawn, et cetera, and some of the leaves are turning it’s hard to think that far forward because it’s just been so crazy and chaotic of the leaves are turned like no, it’s, it’s hard to think that far forward because it’s just been so crazy and chaotic of late, but it’s yeah, it’s just flying by. Well, then we get the freaking whatever’s happening. Over the last, like last week and this week, the corn sweats like whoever thought that would be a thing. No, that, oh, like how much? Yeah, yeah, like 3 000 gallons per acre. Yeah, which is your pool? What’d you say? It’s like 5,000?. Yeah, I heard like 4,000 or whatever. But I’m like I have a little, you know, above ground pool 6’9″ thing. I’m like that’s 5,000 gallons, so that in the air per acre. Yeah, that’s remarkable. It blows my mind.
Ryan Freng:
Um, so I’m gonna be making a bouvardier. It’s like my favorite go-to drink. I’ve been making them. I made them earlier in the week for us with with a scale. I want to make sure that we get the right amounts. Uh, are you familiar with the manhattan? You probably are. Uh, so bourbon, um, and sweet vermouth, and in this case, carpano antica, which is like the best. That’s the one you got to get. But a Bovardier also has Campari, so it’s a little bit orange, a little bit bitter, which is kind of fun. So that’s what we’re going to be making today.
Ryan Freng:
So we don’t have any tough questions. There’s not really any questions, we just kind of have a conversation. But I would like you to introduce yourself. Who are you and what do you do? You can look at me or him. Yeah, uh, so my name is Sam Blutnick.
Ryan Freng:
Um, yeah, I grew up in West Bend, wisconsin. I was born in Iowa. We grew up in West Bend, wisconsin. I moved from Davenport to West Bend to work for the Gale Company. My father did so. That’s what brought us just north of Milwaukee, although all my relatives are from Keweenaw, kelly, the south of Door County, right on Lake Michigan. Yeah, I went to school there In the blink of an eye I went back to Iowa for college I guess I was 14 years, went there for baseball, iowa State.
Ryan Freng:
Went in Rome. I studied agricultural economics. I’m giving you the cliff notes. Yeah, studied agriculture, which brought me back to Madison area. After college I had a job for the State Department of Agriculture, which was sweet. Is that where you first learned about corn sweats? So my godbrother had a herford farm. So I spent a couple summers not by choice doing farm chores so I learned about the sweats I don’t know if it was the Different sweats Hard work, but loved agriculture, loved that tied in the economy and just people are more genuine, it seems.
Ryan Freng:
But while working at the State Department of Ag I got to do a bunch of cool projects, one of which was working with the International Agribusiness Center. They sent me to guadalajara for a food show, which is where I now or met my now wife, uh, by chance, through mutual friends. So we crossed paths and the logistics to the extreme. And I assure that only because, as a recent college grad working for state government, I didn’t make any money and I have no vacation. So I left state government to work for a buddy at Baker Tilly when it was still virtual crowds, so that kind of spurred on my business development or sales mindset. So for 14 years I was at Baker Tilly and did sales. You know Dan Zeller, sure, yeah, yeah, worked with Dan and Jordan his brother-in-law. Know dan zeller, sure, yeah, yeah, worked with dan and jordan his brother-in-law. Um, but, yep, spent many years there and then when it got to be kind of a tough travel gig, when I started out with all the kids at home, uh, left there and went to the public sector that’s right, did that for five years, got vested with the state retirement system and then we got to have to go to 1848 Construction. So, as part of their succession plan and ownership, I joined up there in 2019. Our former CEO retired in 2020. I bought into March of 21. So that’s kind of brought me to my current and hopefully permanent profession where we do construction, commercial, retail, industrial.
Ryan Freng:
Had you planned to be an owner? Was that like an idea? Like, hey, I could be a part of this company? So I had a setup at the village and, knowing what my equation would have been to get to retirement, I was in an okay spot. So I actually thought about staying in public government and maybe becoming, maybe looking into an administrator role or something. But when Jim Anderson came and jammed me in the shoulder he said, would you ever be interested in coming back to the private sector? And I said, well, maybe, but I have to think about this. And ownership was one of those caveats that if I’m going to go back in, devote the time and effort you know, the relationship, networking, all that that you put into it. I’d like it to be something that was kind of more of a long-term gain and benefit for my family, for the sacrifice on the front end of the relationship. So it was part of that transition.
Ryan Freng:
And do you like, do you view yourself as an entrepreneur or like you know, you obviously have a title like VP. Let’s see, what is it VP of? Is it VP of something? Or you’re a vice president and you do what’s that? So that’s what I hit for Vice president, comma Comma, business development. Okay, that’s right, because we have three owners of the company, so we have our CEO and then two vice presidents, but I get to do the fun stuff, the business development. So that’s the networking. But, yeah, the choosing side of relationships. So our CEO is the head of project management and estimating. We have a vice president in charge of operations, so that’s overseeing all the staff and then I get to do kind of the business development, the relationship side.
Ryan Freng:
Did you start there early in your career or did that because you said you kind there early in your career? Or did that because you, because you said you, you kind of, were in sales and love the sales after? Yeah, I didn’t see myself as a sales person, as a sales guy, yeah, but I always liked interacting with people and, just, you know, pay you back meaningful relationship. So I’ve joked that I’m a pretty poor salesman in that I get tested emotionally versus looking for, you know, straight coil sales, transactional kind of a. Yeah, you know, we’ve been talking about this a lot recently in our company, talking about sales and and how.
Ryan Freng:
I mean I don’t know if this is unique to our industry. I think we started from the standpoint of like, oh, I think this is unique in production and marketing, but I actually don’t know that it’s that unique and it’s this idea of like, oh, sales, yeah, I don’t like sales, I don’t know if I want to do that or whatever and it’s like it’s actually just having relationships. Yeah, because you know we have. What we have in our mind is actually the picture in our mind of a bad salesman. Right, yeah, that’s what was in our mind, where we’re like I don’t think I like this, because we’ve all experienced that person who’s just like how do we get you into this? You know, oh, my god, or how, whatever you know, uh, and you’re just like dude, leave me alone. Like I want, like I was trying to talk to a person and now you’re coming after me and at some point you have to finish negotiating a deal or whatever.
Ryan Freng:
But people want to like work with people that get them, and that’s what we always say. It was just like well, we can figure all this out. Like we can talk about the details and adjust things however you need. Let’s just do you. Do you feel like we’re on the same page? You feel like we get each other, feel like we would be a good part? If so, let’s do it. No, if people do appreciate that genuine versus being pitched something and there’s a time and a place for that, yeah, I agree, it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s um, the value and the relationship versus you know you have that something that you’re selling, that you believe in, then you always bet adds value and benefit to them. Well, and I think it may be so, maybe it is unique, not necessarily just to marketing, but to industries where the project is like a big thing and a long-term thing.
Ryan Freng:
I’m trying to make an assumption here connecting to like construction. It’s like like, yeah, it’s probably not small. You’re like, once we’re in, we work together and talking to each other for a long time so we better. You know it’s not like a one-off. I just sold you a thing and now I’m leaving and you know, yeah, and the transactional, you know turnover time or whatever the period can be elongated. But then also we look at capital construction projects. Not everybody is building new buildings every year or doing an improvement. So it’s that long-term relationship. I think the number that I earn was once every five years. Companies on average will look at doing some sort of a capital construction project. So how do you stay tied to that individual or group? And then how are you front of mind when they go to that next round of looking for that resource? So it’s a long-term plane, it is all relationship. You want to work with people that enjoy doing that. Yeah, yeah. So I have known you. I knew you before this and now here, you know, before the, the AT4 Yade, before the ownership.
Ryan Freng:
My question is on ownership you know so how, you know what, how’s that perspective and how has that been different for you? You know, just like stepping into that world of like, okay, I’m studying, I kind of have flexibility, but also I have responsibility. And now my flexibility is like, you know, I’m my own problem with my schedule. You know, with a family it’s like, hey, can we do this? You’re like, technically I can say yes, but also I need to say no, a low requirement. And Ryan had asked before about entrepreneurial mindset and I will say that I have silent invested and actively invested in two startups before, one that’s still going and one that’s not, and coming in on board with this company. It was testing, improving, has great resources and references in the market, has great resources and references in the market. So to transition into ownership here was a lot less uncertain and a lot less scary than some of the earlier ventures that I had done years ago.
Ryan Freng:
I’d like to think that everybody who works for companies has pride and takes self-interest in representing who they are and the company and all that. It is different when you sign on the dotted line and you’ve got responsibilities about making paywall, about HR issues and just the way that you try and have intentionality about messaging with employees and other folks outside of the company. So in some ways it was an easy, smooth transition. In some ways it was exciting because it was a heightened level, more risk, more reward. But it comes with the good spiral with the bad.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah and sorry, your camera was down for a minute and I just fixed your camera, fixed the drink Now. I just fixed your camera, fixed the drink. Now I can hang out and not work is the hope I was not on camera. Yeah, no, that’s great. You were not on camera for a little bit there, but we got it all sorted out. So this is our Brevardier Again. It’s a Manhattan with Campari. So cheers. Thanks for coming and hanging with us man. Thank you for coming and hanging with us man. It’s a good one. Was I supposed to just chug your whole thing? Oh, I hope not.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, this, this would have gone very differently from how you expected, so kind of to that point too of ownership and and being an employee and things like that. You know, it’s interesting with employees. I don’t know how many you manage or if you manage. It’s interesting with employees. I don’t know how many you manage or if you manage, but trying to get them to have ownership and buy-in while not being owners right is an interesting conundrum. And I think we have fantastic staff who are exceptional in that they are not kind of all the tropes of millennials or Gen what is it? Gen Z, where you know in two months if they don’t have complete fulfillment they’re like I’m out of here, right To do stuff, that maybe they don’t want to do all this stuff but they do it and they do it well. But then they get some ownership and then they can take that and do it better than you could have expected. And I think I think we’ve been fortunate. But I don’t know if.
Ryan Freng:
Do you manage anybody or have anybody like? So I joke, in my career I really never managed anybody. I’ve managed processes, I’ve managed RFP responses, I’ve managed pipelines and all this, but I haven’t had direct reports, I’ve had to do evaluations, et cetera. So, um, no, what was the short answer? I am a manager of business development and not a personnel, although you know, everybody can. We’re a small shop, so everybody who works and interacts and you’re still one of the owners.
Ryan Freng:
And the comment about sales before was interesting to me because really everybody is selling your company and Subway and, whether in our firm, whether you’re the office manager, project manager or even the executive assistant, your interactions represent the company, yes, and actually close deals and relationships from every resource in our company, including the folks out in the field that have trusted relationships and people that rely on them. So when you have that and you bring that lead opportunity relationship to the company, you know that that goes a long way and that long term relationship to me. That’s why I feel like everybody should take pride in ownership and everybody is selling. That’s a really good point. Like for all types of work, you know and we should talk about that in our company like everything you do is going to reflect back on us somehow, you know. So when you’re in that conversation or when you send that message, we don’t want you to be crazy about how you’re thinking about it, but the idea, like you’re saying that it is all marketing to some degree, it is all sales to some degree and at least be cognizant, I think is the is a good start.
Ryan Freng:
Well, in the world of work is I don’t know if the world of work is different, but the mindset is different, like because and it I try to do I try to have some empathy with employees, you know, because we, we want that mindset, um, but as a non-owner, like, are you up at night, you know, thinking about things? Maybe not, and maybe that’s okay, you know, maybe maybe not everyone should be up at night, you know. But the difference in mindset that I’m talking about is that there was a time when people, whether they were owners or not, were thinking about, you know, I’m going to work here for 20, 30 years and then retire. And now there’s a, the mindset is very different. It’s like, oh, we’ll see how long, and I’m going to see about the next thing, and, you know, moving on and doing that thing or whatever, like it’s.
Ryan Freng:
It’s rare to find people who are committed. Um, it’s tough to like balance that, because you know you get that team aspect, but then, yeah, that’s and you hear the term loyalty and I don’t, I don’t always think that it’s someone being disloyal another opportunity that really is the best for them. And so I think, you know, it’s always easier to retain folks than to, you know, on board and newly acclimate new employees, but also can’t slight somebody for an opportunity that they value better themselves, their personal status or family or position in life. So how do you keep that opportunity in front of them while they’re still at your company? I love that reflection on loyalty too, because it’s like, well, are you disloyal when you leave? No, we don’t want to have that language, but we want the best of you while you’re here, you know, and then when you leave, we wish you the best and you should give the best of that somewhere else, but not to tie it to loyalty. For those reasons, yeah, and I don’t think it’s a hierarchical separation of owners and non-owners. Yeah, I’m sure you guys have heard, you know ideas like you do exit interview with your new employees or along the way to see kind of a genuine pulse of how things are going, or along the way to see kind of a genuine pulse of how things are going. And if you wait until somebody’s on the way out the door and they’re disgruntled and upset and didn’t have a good experience, that’s a missed opportunity for something you could be improving along the way. So not that we’re great at doing that, but we try to give everybody the opportunity to speak and have open, candid dialogue and all that. But again, every shop is different and the way that that culture is just a little bit, and the fact that you have multiple owners. So you’re, you know, in a similar, uh, situation. You know we have three partners and I think that’s healthy.
Ryan Freng:
When it was funny, going through school, we did like a consulting. We got a free consulting with, like the UW business school. You know, would do these projects and give you opinions and stuff and their their opinion. Oh, our business had a consultation with them. Yeah, we, we, when did that?
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, I evaluated things like partnerships don’t work, and there was just like this, such a strong opinion like partnerships don’t work, and there was just like such a strong opinion like partnerships don’t work, certainly not multiple members. But you know, they were just very even against and it was like, oh well, I guess, if you’re looking at it from a lens of like no humility, you know like people not like working together and like they are hard because you kind of like you know, grind on each other. But I think it’s healthy because, for the record, our ownership group does not grind on each other. You guys, I don’t know what that’s like at all, yeah, yeah, in a good way, uh.
Ryan Freng:
But, like, where I’m going with this is just that I think it’s possible within a sole proprietorship, especially if somebody’s not, you know, well grounded and having you know people give feedback and opinions, to just be oblivious to the things that are going on, or that feedback or things aren’t going very well. You just don’t know. You’re just like, you’re just going. Yeah, when you have partners, it’s like three people are all about you. You know, in our like, three people are all evaluating, you know, in our case, biggest assets. I think you know just very different perspectives, um, and so we come at it from different ways and I might want to go one way and John another or Scott another, and you know, um, then you’d have to try to figure out how to communicate through that uh, in a way that it’s like it’s not like a marriage, like we just, you know, be gone tomorrow if we wanted, um, but that idea that we’re gonna work through it has always been one of our greatest strengths.
Ryan Freng:
And then, over the last year, we’ve started some new initiatives in the company. One of them is, um, entrepreneur mindset. I don’t know what the book is els traction right there, uh, and that’s been really great because it just it kind of takes the emotionality out of your work and your discourse in a good way. So it’s not like, oh, we don’t like Sam’s idea or they don’t like my idea and they don’t like me, it’s like, no, they just have a different opinion and that opinion is just as valid. So, for me at least, it’s been very helpful to have a methodology on how we interact and how we set goals and how we work towards them and how we set rocks and goals for ourselves and do that for the company.
Ryan Freng:
And it’s taken almost all my frustration away, even when I’m like, ooh, I have a really good idea, I think it’s awesome, let’s go. But I’m going to put it into the process with you guys and, oh, we’re not going to do it. Okay, I see why. You know, you know, and we we’ve agreed to let this be like a mediator to some degree, so it’s nice. And if everybody’s moving to the same common goal, yeah, it’s understood and appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, and that was I mean I wanted to go.
Ryan Freng:
After we got back from the national eucharistic congress, I was like there’s another, there’s another conference next month and it’s for, like icsc, it’s like the fundraisers for parishes, essentially, and I was like that’s a great opportunity. Guys are like, yeah, it is, we need to follow up on the opportunities that we already had. I was like, right, I was like that other thing that we did that I was really excited about too, um, and it was less of you know me not getting my way and more of like us working together towards our goal and and that was that was a really great thing and and you know, maybe it’s not all that like, I don’t think it’s profound, I think it’s simple and other people probably haven’t figured out the system that and we always joke too that it’s like well, in a creative company, there’s a lot of emotions flying around in a creative company, maybe it’s the same in other companies you know Like could be. Yeah, there are a lot of similarities and and the business owners, small or large, that I’ve interacted with, um, your networking groups or, uh, just the ability to balance best practices and ideas and thoughts and you know, tools that people are using there are a lot of similarities across business lines. I don’t know just like you’re describing, so it doesn’t have to be a creative content, company versus construction, company versus widgets or whatever it is. But there’s a lot of just that mindset. I think that flows.
Ryan Freng:
So you’re vice president, comma, development, so there’s probably things. I found this on the web. Thanks, siri. I love Apple so much. When things work together, they work so well. But Siri is the single worst Apple product ever. It is so trash it is. You know, like that, like why is it doing that? Oh yeah, it’s like a British lady, my wife’s like why is it British? I don’t know, it’s hot, my computer shouldn’t be British.
Ryan Freng:
Um, but so, vp, there’s probably some different roles, uh, responsibilities, than director of development or development director or whatever. Um, yeah, what’s that like at at your company, you know, especially you, you buying in as a, as another partner, you know, like as a junior member, like whatever. Yes, I’m a, you know, a lower ranking minority owner, so we establish positions in our board meetings and who does the minutes and you know stuff like that it’s. It is kind of like you’re putting in your time. Is the board separate than president? Vpvp? It can be per our bylaws right now, okay, but but I mean, you know, our ceo is four years older than me. Our other vp is two years older than me, so we’re close in age relatively speaking. So we talk about what is that runway that we have together and what that succession looks like.
Ryan Freng:
Because our company, from 2002 to 2015, was another design build firm and then in 2016, starting off the year, the Wisconsin folks branched away from that mothership and because we were Wisconsin assets wisconsin projects, wisconsin, you know personnel we rebranded as 1848. Wisconsin became a state. Everybody picks up on that, you can tell. We paid attention. That’s great, um, but that was by half a chance, because we couldn’t find another company name that wasn’t either taken or had a domain on the website that you couldn’t get or was in litigation in St Louis or something like that. So all the names that those owners threw out were kind of just five meetings later they couldn’t come up with anything and then saw the Wisconsin flag blue background, white lettering, 1838.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, and completely by happenstance, being a numeric company name, we’re at the top of the list for the vendor listing on everything. Yeah, I mean, we’re B, so we’re just two letters down, right? Yeah, you know that’s. Yeah, all you geniuses out there, yes, your company, look for numbers or a letter. Yeah, sorry, you asked the question. I don’t think I even got. Yeah, sorry, you asked the question. I don’t think I even got. Oh, just like what? You know, what does that look like at your guys’s company? Like, did they already have methodologies that they’re like, here’s how we make decisions? Yeah, so I think there was a lot of learned experience from a lot of the folks who were together in the 1990s instruction company. If you look at the circles I mean all networking circles, but especially madison area are small and they have to overlap and people kind of meander in their careers. So so our folks had been together for 20 years or better. Some of the folks in the field, in the office.
Ryan Freng:
Um, the the way that you know the intentionality behind the structure, we tried to limit our overheads. We don’t have any architects or engineers on staff. We manage the projects, outsource everything in the middle and then we do our finish carpentry, rough finish carpentry out in the field, in-house. We don’t self-perform a lot of items that some other bigger GCs do. The benefit is we can ebb and flow and not have a lot of overhead that we have to tie into a lot of the projects, right right, but have a lot of overhead that we have to tie into a lot of the projects, right, right, great, um.
Ryan Freng:
But again, going back to your question, um, there there was intentionality about how the board structure was set up, um, so that we didn’t have a lot of overlap, and whose roles and responsibilities, who was going to be ceo and? And the company was uh, brought in a or in 2016,. The other company had some debt anchors tied to it when it was kind of reborn in 2016,. It’s been structured intentionally so that we have to deal with that kind of investment development risk. And how many years have you been there? Now? I’ve been in 2019, okay so, but just a couple years after that restructuring, yeah, yeah, yeah, is that?
Ryan Freng:
So we’ve been around for about 17 years and the interesting thing is, like we’ve been uh, successfully stumbling our way through everything, and I say it in that in that way, because, like, we didn’t learn from somebody else. Um, that’s maybe the only thing. Had there been opportunity, I would have, would have tried to change. Our learning was, you know, call it up rich from tilt and being like, hey, this is happening. Here’s what we’re thinking. What do you think? You know, like another older agency, but it was, you know, yeah, brief, yeah, yeah, you know, like typically any type of apprenticeship like, even like these young folk, the young folk we’re like, hey, just come work for us. Like you know, you’ll learn something in school and that can be great in production.
Ryan Freng:
I encourage a lot of people not to go to school just to start working, because after four years you could probably be doing a role that you want, whereas we just got a message the other day, like um, from a student who’s graduating or just graduated and he’s like hey, you know, looking to help out, blah, blah, blah, I’m a director, or what. What did he say? What it was like I’m a director of cinematography. My background yeah, you’re like, no, it’s backgrounds in college, in high school. Yeah, yeah, you’re like, no, it’s Backgrounds in college and high school. Yeah, yeah, you’re like a kid who knows how to do nothing. So you, you would need to be trained, so I can’t hire you for any of the roles you want to do.
Ryan Freng:
So, thinking, thinking more about that kind of pathway, like we didn’t have that in business, and so we just kind of made it up and we were successful in what we made up. Business, and so we just kind of made it up and we were successful in what we made up. And then Scott came on and kind of brought a lot of that corporate, uh kind of understanding as well, which really helped to solidify a lot of what we’re doing and kind of maybe have a better foundation. But there’s still a lot that we still do, that we designed and developed, and it’s a lot different kind of than the corporate world, but it’s it’s a lot of what we’re talking about. You know what we don’t want sales to be. You know, like I had a phone call yesterday with a client and I was like I want to talk to you because I want to pick your brain about this project and there might be a pitch. And then when we got to the pitch, she’s like, well, tell me more. And I was like, well, cool, because like I honestly wanted her advice, but she wanted my pitch, you know because of it. So that was cool.
Ryan Freng:
If you guys were to go back, I mean I don’t actually I’m sure you shared it with me. You know the since the inception of the company, but I mean if you were to go back, would you die? I think different with the way you evolved over time. We talked about leaning on resources and and calling and tapping on the shoulder of somebody might have better. Well, the butterfly effect, like if, if it was different, I don’t know that I would have, if I would have little ambrose, who’s my seventh, you know. So I don’t think I would change it, but I recommend other people do it differently than what I did. Yeah, I think the.
Ryan Freng:
I think the thing that I would do would have been to add more like business learning Cause, like we would, we joke that like, well, we, we made a company that you know fund our filmmaking habit, you know, um, and we just wanted to do it. And I was like, well, I don’t know the business side, but we’ll figure that out. And so you know that was a lot of like work to figure out things that are probably like oh yeah, this is, you know, we eventually reinvented something that was like oh yeah, that’s pretty basic way to do that. Yeah, you know, whatever, yeah, okay, um, but it’s it’s a but it’s a hard question, because I really like a lot of what we do and a lot of what we’ve done, and I can certainly say crash era, and so we were starting with lower cost equipment we didn’t have overhead, really, and new technology was coming out, the dslrs and dslr revolution. This is all internal industry stuff.
Ryan Freng:
But like we went from eng cameras to you know those like it’s a photo camera that has a nice lens on it, so suddenly it looks better. Uh, it doesn’t look like a soap opera, it looks more like when I see it in movies. That’s the simple way to explain it. Well, we got into that right away. Another established shop like well, they’ve got 60, 100, 200 grand invested in in cameras and stuff. Like well, we gotta use what we have.
Ryan Freng:
And so we were able to get in with like, uh, subjectively better quality, you know, imagery and also hd. It’s so funny, like we’re, this is where we’re like we’re battling in right at. Like hd was just kind of becoming more of a thing, so we were not pricing like standard or hd prices. We’re like, no, just all hd. Why would you ever do lower quality? Like no, and if your price needs to be that, we’ll just do that. We’re like, no, just all hd. Why would you ever do lower quality? Like no, and if your price needs to be that, we’ll just do that, but we’re gonna use, you know.
Ryan Freng:
So we came in and we really sort of like carving out a space for ourselves, you know, um, and then all these years later now we have had to sort of live that other side of it, like, okay, we have things built out and with the overhead changes, we have to adapt and we can talk more about that story. Uh, there’s, there’s some specific things, we’ve conclusions we’ve come to from that um, which we’re doing now. Yeah, but it’s, it’s hard, like how, what would I do different? Like I don’t know. I mean, it’s a challenge. Yeah, just like you said. But like the challenges are the things that have made us good, like doing it our own way and reinventing it has been good. It’s what you hear about or read about.
Ryan Freng:
When, like, a company becomes stagnant, you know, because they’re not inventing anything, they’re not trying, they’re not pushing, they’re not. You know, yeah, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t do anything different. But I would tell someone like hey, you want to get into the industry? Like, just start doing things. You know, like, after you finish your required high school, just start filming on your phone. Even like that whole and and I don’t know if this is necessarily the way to go but that whole influencer, youtuber, you know, kind of course, like so many people just start filming dumb things and it’s entertaining, and they then make fifty thousand dollars a month making those things. Now, where they all eventually want to go is something simple and sustainable and more real, which is like a production company, um, or longer form content or whatever.
Ryan Freng:
But cutting your chops on something like that is like us cutting our chops, kind of in the wedding industry, which you know burns everybody out. But you learn a lot and you learn how to be effective and efficient and all those things. I thought you mean photography, not by getting married, not by getting married, yeah, yeah, yeah, like everyone in the photography in the marriage industry industry, you know there’s a, there’s a shelf life, you can handle it and you can be wildly successful. But then you’re like this is killing me. Like my wife stopped the wedding dresses a couple of years ago, uh, cause it was just brutal, successful but brutal um house remodels, but then she got pregnant. I don’t know how that happened and then, and then her brain stopped working and we don’t have any cabinet doors on any of our kitchen things, so they’re over, I don’t know um, but now ambrose is getting in all those, uh, so her new thing is cookies, which is. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of those your wife might have, like on facebook or something. Yeah, but not to be a business, because, like when it becomes a business and there’s a demand, like it’s a different mental thing. So, yeah, maybe that’s another way to go too.
Ryan Freng:
How do you view your job? Do you stop at 6 o’clock? You’re like I’m done, I’m not going to think about this anymore, or do you constantly think about it? I feel like society in general is hard to shut down anything anymore and people want responsiveness. They want to know that, no matter what time they’re reaching out to you, that it’s been received and at least you’ve acknowledged that you’ve gotten something and you’ll get back to them. So I think that’s a problem in trying to check out and just get mental sanity. I don’t mean that specific to our company or to construction, I just think that that’s a generalization. It’s harder to check out and get away and not feel like you’re falling behind when you have 300 emails waiting for you after being two days out of the office.
Ryan Freng:
Back to your question. So many of the leads and opportunities that seem to be tied to my effort are personal ties. So if I’m out and it’s not. I’m not pitching friends or whatever. If you’re out and in conversation and somebody hears you’re here on the construction world, well, how much, roughly, is a price per square foot on this type of project? Well, you’re right there giving some valued information and if you can provide them or info that they’re going to come back and and share with somebody, or whatever it is, I don’t feel like you’re ever.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, would you look tough? Yeah, yeah, are you, would you say you’re an extroverted person, or introverted Like where do you, where do you get, how do you recharge? I was super, super introverted. I grew up very embarrassed as a child. My parents split when I was five Won’t go into all those details, but I grew up very introverted, sure, and fortunately, through sports and other father figures, I was pulled out of my shell, not in my choice, so with that I had buddies that would joke that I’d go talk to their parents instead of hanging out with them when we’d be at high school parties or whatever.
Ryan Freng:
So I think just the ability to interrelate with people seems like you’re an extrovert. I think actually I’m an introverted type person and I love going up to the cabin you know fishing, just that quiet, reserved reflection time, uh, sitting in the deer stand. We don’t have any deer and it will a lot of time to just sit and reflect and think. Um, but to answer your question, I think it’s fun to interrelate with people. What I feel introverted often, yeah, and I think so, I I relate to that a lot um, and it my wife loves to tell people that, like no, he’s introverted. Like when we get home, he just needs to like put his head under a pillow and be alone. Um, but where was I going with that? Um, it like the like, the intentionality. I think I think that’s maybe what introverts know. Uh, no shade on our extroverts, but I think that’s what introverts really strive for too is like real intentional conversation, and that’s what we try to do. And so, like, when I’m getting into something with somebody, it’s going to be real intentional and I’m going to be really hyper-focused on them, which I think, in terms of marketing and sales in the good way, not in the bad way is an asset because, yeah, then somebody’s like, yeah, I like that person. I do want to work with them. I may not even have a project now, cause, like our project, lean time is kind of silly, like you know, it’s not somebody buying a widget like same thing with you guys, like it might be something that they need to do in a year and then it’s going to take a few months to go. And so just being around them and being a positive influence around them, I think is useful. But, to your point, that’s a meaningful, intentional interaction and people pick up on that right. Whether you’re buying a car or something you know. We’ve all been approached by those.
Ryan Freng:
I was. I was trying to fix something on the yellow pages yesterday and it was like our listing wasn’t there. There’s some issue with our listing and I couldn’t capture the listing and update our stuff and it’s just good for link and search engine optimization. So I wanted to fix it Down the phone with somebody who’s really nice. He was helping me fix it and he’s like all right, yeah, well, you know, what else are you looking to do? And I was like well, there’s another page that I want to get our stuff on. And he’s like okay, well, about how many leads are you trying to get a month? And I was like one, five, like I don’t, like I don’t know.
Ryan Freng:
Uh, I was like we have like 30 ongoing clients, you know, with a bunch of smaller clients in a given year, so you don’t need a ton. So, okay, what other type of work do you do this? It’s like, well, how many clients are those? I was like, where’s this going? Well, there’s this marketing agency that bought yellow pages. And so he’s like, yeah, yeah, no, yeah, no, we can help you, we can get you onto that page. Let me just set you up with a blah blah blah specialist tomorrow. And I was like okay.
Ryan Freng:
And then afterwards I was like no, I don’t want to be marketed to, like that was gross, like I was trying to solve a problem. And then you’re like, yeah, what was it going to take to get you into one of these things you know today? So I was, uh, thinking about the work you know, always on work thing, and I think it was specifically, I don’t know, maybe maybe I just have to embrace it, because I always say like I hate talking about covid. I’m gonna try, you know, someday we won’t have to talk about covid all the time. Maybe we will have to, you know, because grandpa’s talking about World War II, and so like someday we’ll be like, well, back in COVID, yeah, you know. So I had this thought about like that always on thing.
Ryan Freng:
Part of the reason that I think it’s a problem, part of the reason that it’s more of a problem, is because, was it ever different when everyone was farming? You were always on, because there’s always something to be done, but your work is at home and your coworkers are your family and maybe a few people that live around you or something. Now we I mean certainly the way that I grew up you know like work is separate from home. I get home and I leave work at work and get home is home, so that if I’m on at work, if I’m having to respond, then I’m like leaving family, I’m leaving that environment or those conversations to address work, and it doesn’t work in a whole separate community to some degree. Yeah, it doesn’t work with everyone and it doesn’t work in a whole separate community to some degree. Yeah, it doesn’t work with everyone and it doesn’t work with every family.
Ryan Freng:
But like the idea of like doing more together with your family, who then? There’s a couple people around here that’s related to somebody else. Claire will be in tomorrow. Yeah, you know, like it’s that can be challenging, right, like we’re not trying. We don’t want to have nepotism. We want to have, you know, 100 the right nepotism. But like, why own a business if we can’t right, be nepotistical? But it’s so, but it’s, I just, it’s better. Like, yeah, then you don’t feel so much about that always on thing, because it’s like this is what we, our family, this is what we are doing together. Um, instead of like, okay, that’s that and that’s the. You know, yeah, and the kids need time you have their books read, or bedtime and stuff.
Ryan Freng:
But like, you know, like, oh, this is like, if it’s a family effort and that was easier when I was farming because it was just like it was like, oh well, I got in from the field and now we got to like, take care of the animal chores, yeah, how do you deal with intentionality with your family? I don’t do well with it Because I grew up just having to take care of all my own stuff. Yeah, I don’t disseminate. Well, and my wife reminds me of that. So we have chicks then. Well, and my wife reminds me of that, so we have chicks in. I don’t do well on like, here’s your chores, here’s the list. Get this done. I just expect my children to be, you know, thoughtful, courteous, respectful, and they come out of the world right, yeah, so when I come home and the dishes aren’t done, it’s like, well, somebody should have thought about that. But yeah, they’re still good kids. Yeah, and your wife’s also like I kept them alive, you’re welcome.
Ryan Freng:
But starting with the farming life and so I think a lot of that. You know role models like parents the kids don’t see that necessarily these days or how parents interact with other adults, maybe in a professional setting or whatever it is. It’s it’s kind of robbing them a little bit of that example. Um, whereas years ago that was something that was just in the upbringing. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but there’s some of that. That seems to be a lot. Do you reference so? Well, I used to laugh because you could not have one conversation or meeting without somebody referencing COVID for, like you know, years. And here we are.
Ryan Freng:
But for us I was speaking for my family we felt like we were a farm family from like 300 years. We were together. We, you know, got up, we ate, we prayed, we spent time together. You were just with each other and, yeah, there were fights and there were disagreements, but we bonded. Yeah, also during that time such a different flavor. It really was interesting. I don’t from a business sense I didn’t enjoy it, but family, just alignment. If I actually enjoyed a lot of those moments, I I loved it. Uh, you know, obviously people got hurt and that sucks and I don’t love that part of it, but the rest of it, like I’m such a homebody, such an introvert, and it was like we don’t have to meet anybody. Nobody else is like hanging out, like we did have like the darts, where we’re like part of our pod people and Carolyn April, and so like within a few months we’re like, yeah, we’re just hanging out with you guys and no one else, like somebody is going to snitch on you for going to the grocery store, but but we’re going to still hang out.
Ryan Freng:
Things that I’m dealing with and some of them are very specifically my own tasks, and then 60 of them, 60% of them are other people’s things that I need to provide feedback or help or whatever with, and there’s all those things. And then I go home and they’re still all spinning in my head Like how do I set that aside? And so there’s another book around here, deep Work by Cal Newport things over there that has some mechanisms to be able to set the workday aside, but you can always come back to it or, like I might be, like I’m going to do this until the kids go to bed, you know, I can set it aside, not worry about it, focus on the family. And then at eight o’clock I got to work more on this proposal because we have to review tomorrow. I mean because home is almost like halftime You’ve done your first half and then regroup and be present and be the best that you can for those moments at home. But it is hard if you had a rough day or something’s lingering or the client is chirping in your ear and you can’t, you know, get that out of your head to just try and disconnect from that.
Ryan Freng:
There’s a few different uh. So, father eric nielsen, you have a talk one time and he was talking about I’m gonna go grab some other libations just for uh, he was talking hydration. Like, go go home for dinner. You know it was his like, realize that you might have to work more and ever, um, even if you have to go back into the office, or if you can, you know, do more work from home, or whatever. He was like his, his advice go home for dinner, reconnect, do the dinner and then go back to work. I mean, yeah, um, another cool perspective. I heard it is a friend of mine. Um, yeah, so, yeah. So he’s a big uh, he’s a big evangelist for the golden hour. Um, the um, well, optimist, uh, um, it’ll, it’ll come to me. Um, there’s this, uh, uh, it’s a podcast.
Ryan Freng:
The Golden Hour is a podcast and it’s this like work method. It’s all about kind of reframing stuff. But the Golden Hour is what they like focus on. It’s like having, like you know, it could be more than an hour, but like having this very productive period of time where you’re like focusing, it’s kind of like deep work or whatever. But to reframe that even one step further with this friend, it was like it’s like I realized that I needed to make my golden hour that first hour that I got home. You know, he was like I’m I’m doing stuff to work all day, whatever. Like the time that I am needed, where I have to be like on and what’s way more important for my soul or whatever and for my family is like the hour that I get home talking about what’s the what’s the golden hour podcast, optimist, optimal work, optimal work, yeah, um, anyway, uh, the joe bug me. Yeah, do you know Joe bug me. He’s so big on optimal work every time I see him, but he but he was actually talking about, you know, it’s similar to the deep work idea and similar to these things. But his reframe was like I need to make the golden hour that first hour that I get home, and that’s you know, that’s interesting and that’s you know that’s interesting and that’s a good challenge.
Ryan Freng:
Probably for most, uh, most men or most working, you know, parents is like. Instead of like getting home and be like, oh, this has been a horrible day I can I do now want to speak to any of you right now, or stressful or whatever, instead, like make that the golden hour and then after that, what I really need to do is my wife has told me as much, I should listen. She’s like you know that several hours after you work out are like your best time of the day, and it really is like, and I work out early morning and then take the kids in and then come to work and like best hours of the day, like I’m like happy, go, lucky, bopping around and whatever. People are still groggy and I’ve been up for four hours, um. But to the, to the idea of that golden hour, like maybe I start work really early and then I work out at like three and then dinner time, I’m just like on, you know, still get the good, good work time in, um, but there’s something to like the physicality and the endorphins and you know you played sports and all that. It is funny to come home and like, whether it’s like seven year old or I have a kid with special needs who’s 16, and they’ll say, hey, how was work, how was your day? And I don’t even think they know what they’re asking, but they want to see my reaction. You know, yeah, like if I’m struggling or frustrated or not responding how they hope I do, then that impacts. You know, like 15 minutes, half hour, hour and further. Uh.
Ryan Freng:
So Jacob, he’s 16 now. He has Down syndrome, but he has a knack for picking up on people’s persona and you know he aligns with some people more than others. But he also really is in tune with, like my wife and I when we’re grumpy or frustrated and we’re good and and we have to lead him through that with that intentionality. But he always talks about going to the cabin and loves going to the cabin, loves fishing, loves four-wheeling I don’t even know if he really likes it or he knows that I’m a better me and so we’ll go up there. That’s the best time though, yeah, happy time though, yeah, yeah, and that’s just for me. And so I, I think about that. Like, yeah, is that bad parenting? Other, is it good that he gets some exposure to that? But, um, it’s just interesting to me that that some people pick up on those cues. Well, and there’s, you know, like parenting is so crazy.
Ryan Freng:
I’d love to see like a parenting through the ages book, you know, because, like, we’re like, oh, we’re so modern, we know so much, and like, uh, what are, what are some of the, the things that we say like love and logic and reason and things like that, and I’m like, but you just need to do the thing, like, just pick that up or just do your chore, like I will, I will explain, we will discuss why afterwards. Right now, I’m so mad that you chose not to do it and then chose to do something else. Um, but it’s interesting thinking about, like our parents generation or their parents, and like the different parenting styles, and it probably changes in generations, but I don’t think anything’s probably truly novel. Or or this idea of like caring about our kids emotions Now, now I feel like we need to come back a little bit on the other side and be like everything we do can be geared towards our kids emotions. Like that I feel like we’ve gone a little too far and I certainly probably still need to be more empathetic.
Ryan Freng:
But that idea where it’s like no, they can hear you know a hard word and they can deal with that as long as we are not intentionally condescending or intentionally harmful. And like with one of my kids, my wife told me this he’s like go after him. And I was like you can have a hard word or you can have a correcting word, but you got to go after him, you know, in 10 minutes or something like that. And it was like her experience growing up with a more domineering dad who didn’t go after her. So she felt like left out, you know, or whatever, and certainly still loved, but like forgotten. She felt you wouldn’t coddle too much, you wouldn’t allow, without that intentional intervention or whatever it would be Right, the intentionality.
Ryan Freng:
And so like now, sorry, oh yeah, or school teachers, or you know, everybody has to be on such high edge these days because no one wants to overstep that balance. But again, I think it’s important, right, that kids respect other adults and see how their parents interact with them. But, um, sorry, yeah, yeah, no, just just going on the intentionality idea and like, um, um, jacob picking up on like your emotions and he’s happier when you’re happier, that makes a lot of sense. And like, oh, we got into this coddling world where we’re like I’m gonna spend four hours putting my kids to bed and I’m gonna read these stories and do this and I’m not gonna have a life. That’s not good for your kids, that’s not good for you, obviously, but like that’s the, the other side, that we’ve gone way too far on and I’ve kind of realized, like no, the things that I enjoy, like if the kids see me having joy with that, they will have joy from that and they might even like some of that eventually.
Ryan Freng:
So, like movies are huge in my house. Like kids love movies and they’ll like use all their money to go to the movie theater and watch movies and rewatch stuff we play like the actor game, like oh, who’s that, that’s this, and they’re in this and that, and like movies or like video games or those things where it was like my dad grew up on a farm and I was like, why are you doing all this stuff? Like this is dumb. And now, like I do it and I love it, my kids love it, and I’m like, oh, we can share this together and like that’s super unique and I don’t have to. I don’t know what it is Like. I hate soccer, I hate running around. My boys love soccer.
Ryan Freng:
I’ll do it occasionally, but, like I hate this, let’s go do one of the things I love, and they love to do that too, cause then I’m in that place and yeah, you know, there there’s it’s not just kids, it’s like our whole modern culture, like we have a problem with authority and we everything needs to be justified or we won’t. And so I think the balance that we’ve tried to strike is like especially when the older kids explain, like I, I will explain this to you when we have like time, but also it’s exhausting to me to have to explain that every single time and just having that like it was this, like revelation of, like oh yeah, I can like explain what it is like, how it is that I’m going to do this, and then I will do it from. You know like it’s exhausting. Yeah, explain your frustration. Yeah, yeah, I’m going to do this. And then I will do it from. You know like it’s exhausting work. Yeah, explain, explain your frustration. Yeah, yeah. And so like I can’t do that at all all the time and so sometimes I just need you to just do yeah, and we’re not going to do this every time. We can some other time talk about it, um, and then, yeah, setting that up to be like it’s not going to be all one where I’m just like always because I said so, but also sometimes it will be because I just don’t have time for it more energy, and I don’t want you to like debate me all the time.
Ryan Freng:
I was like this year’s old when I kind of realized that of like being able to communicate with the family and monica, like I’m really overwhelmed. I can’t handle your questions right now, like I’ll tell my kids that there was like when we went through this and like we kind of like what do we want to do with the business and all that stuff, it was like very emotional. It was like one of the best meetings we’ve ever had. It was just super emotional and, at the end of the day, like just regular stuff was happening and like I started getting really upset and then, like I was actually like crying a little bit and I was like I just can’t handle anything right now. I’m like so emotional. I just need you to like love me and not criticize something, I don’t know some pile that I just made or you know whatever it is. Like I was like, oh, you can just communicate stuff like that, you can communicate your emotions. I didn’t realize that that was not a thing I was taught, so I’m okay, you know, bringing a little bit of that soft.
Ryan Freng:
We’re a couple generations. We were from the you know, don’t, don’t speak, grow up on the farm. And it’s like you’ve received your punishment and we will never talk about this. It would pretend this never happened. Yeah, the only the only like relevant communication is that you got a punishment. Yeah, yeah, like we didn’t even talk about it being wrong. You just got a punishment. Yeah, yeah, that’s crazy man, and I mean this is probably true for both of you, cause I know both of your wives to some degree but like just listening to your wives like that’s hard, but I got to do more of it. Like she’s so smart and it’s.
Ryan Freng:
It’s a really interesting thing to being Catholics. You know, wives submit to your husbands, but what is it to be under the mission of? What is the mission? To serve your wife and your family as Christ, you know. To die for your family, right, so to give yourself up now? Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I was waiting for the kids to elevate your parents, but that that’s right. It was this sunday, yeah.
Ryan Freng:
But but the idea of, like you know, there’s a reason we chose our wives, or our wives chose us, and you know to utilize that it’s. It’s I mean, think about the employee thing to kind of bring it back around. Like obviously you know to utilize that it’s. I mean, think about the employee thing to kind of bring it back around. Like obviously you know being married in the Catholic church we cannot be unmarried, so we’ve been married forever. But like it takes a lot to onboard a wife, you know, or to be married and to figure each other out. Like she just got married, alexis did and I was like what’s your wisdom? Like you should think about that Like every year, like what have you learned? Because it changes somewhat, but like I found that it’s like it’s kind of the same stuff and I just I need to do better at it. Like early on it was like, oh yeah, you know, listen in this to lead. When you’re trying to help, you’re trying your best and it doesn’t work, that’s when I think we get into trouble. And uh, I, I hear my wife talking to my kids yeah, just not waterboarding. Yeah, with the babies it’s, it’s easier and cheaper to keep. Keep the one that you have. Yeah, and after how many years we’ve been married? 16 years. I think, um, yeah, it’s like just new challenges.
Ryan Freng:
Like we argue. The thing we argue about is arguing like I don’t know what you guys, uh, what, what’s big in your household, but it’s arguing. And like, sometimes I’m like I don’t want to argue about arguing, like we agree on the issue. We just hit heads on how we were discussing it and I’ll just apologize, like I’m sorry, like I’ll I don’t want to suck, like I’ll do whatever I need to do and she, you know it’ll kind of make her mad Like doesn’t want me to roll over, like wants to solve it And’m like I just don’t want to argue about arguing communication going on 21 years of marriage, and I come from you know, the german introverted quiet. Don’t, don’t talk about it.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, my wife is a mexican catholic. It’s loud, one of 11. Yeah, and it was. You know, emotions everywhere and even at the dinner. Yeah, it was like wolves on a kill that you, it’s just the way that they, and you’re probably even like whoa, why are you so mad? They’re like I’m not. She’s like I’m not mad. No, this is just how I. Yeah, so for us it’s the, you know, the opposite of the track and the thing. Yeah, yeah, I am told that I need to more often. Thank goodness for technology because you can do whatsapp and talk to your family. Yeah, you know.
Ryan Freng:
Well, you said, you guys long distance, right, we didn’t. So my, my wife and I we’ve had high school and then we had long distance through college and so talking to each other was the only connection, uh, on the phone every single day, and so you know, not that there are conflicts that come up, but like we’re very used to communicating and when we don’t, you know, that’s when actually, that’s when we get out of sync. Yeah, so, yeah, that was just part of just like talking about things and thinking. Yeah, very similar, it forced me to have to communicate from that long distance, and not that every couple should go through a long distance relationship to make it work, but it, yeah, it really tests and tries and you’re going to be committed to it or you’re not, um, so it’s interesting. You had a similar experience.
Ryan Freng:
Well, and how do we do that? Like I never had that and I’ve always reflected on that like he’ll talk to his wife throughout the day. I sometimes won’t even talk to my wife till you get home. Like that’s just normal and it is a little weird sometimes. And like when we do connect during the day, it’s really great, um, but we’re also not the type to just how are you doing? You know what’s going on, like and I’m not saying that’s what you, I’m not saying that’s what you do, but like I see I don’t even know what you do. Like I didn’t have a conversation like this, but like I’m like working, working, working.
Ryan Freng:
And then she calls the. Well, it was like earlier today because I had called her. So she called me back and I didn’t need that question answered anymore. So she’s like, hey, checking in. I’m like cool, is there a question? Like I’m doing stuff like and I just don’t know how to do that in the same way, because I never had a long distance relationship and didn’t need to try to communicate. Now, definitely need to try. Communicate now, definitely need to try. You know, it’s all just practice communication, I think, because I I think even just communicating, that being like you know, oh, do you something? I’m I’m distracted with something and it’s like, oh, sure, yeah, that’s fine and playing, just getting to the point where, like there’s less. Yeah, see, because I was probably just really annoying on my side without communicating why I was being annoying. You know, there’s like trying to like have less unsaid stuff. Okay, yeah, all this back into the business world, yes, so one of my favorite talks ever.
Ryan Freng:
And then we got to interact with the guy again. There’s a guy who who runs an improv shop down in Chicago and one of his biggest stars was Jerry from Parks and Rec. He trained and the guy was talking about business because he also does like some marketing stuff and some consulting, and he was talking about like negotiating and doing meetings, creative meetings, and how communication was like the biggest thing. It’s just like he shared a specific meeting where they won this big contract, because he was there talking, doing the pitch, and he was like the quiet guy. He’s like hey, I forget the you know name. Like hey, jerry, you, you seem like you’re not loving this idea. Did you share about that? And like, yeah, I’m just like.
Ryan Freng:
So my one side of my family is like minnesota, nice, you know, I’m like to me, uh, like peacekeeper kind of personality. Minnesota, nice, like oh my gosh, I can’t imagine like saying that like how like uncomfortable is it? But he was just like getting to the subtext and just share, like communicating the uncommunicated things, and then it just like once that person shared it kind of like eased the tension of like, oh, okay, well, how do we address that? Can we change this? And it came around and it won a big pitch. But there’s so many times that that doesn’t happen. It’s communication, we’re not saying it, something’s unsaid, it’s not going well, we don’t address it, we just walk away. We’re like that was weird, awkward, that didn’t go well. But it has to be engaged on both sides. But yeah, yeah, arts and rites gets underrated.
Ryan Freng:
And, having lived your local municipal government, oh my gosh, yeah, everybody should at some point join a commission, a board, a council. I have nothing else for the I was going to say, just for the hilarity of it, like scenarios that show like this could be sick, though, but also plug for local government. If you want to make the biggest impact, you can, right right, participate locally, because you can actually influence things, versus voting at a national level. Yeah, your sphere of influence a friend of ours talks about so it’s about 420 somewhere here, in fact, and we have a little game that we like to play. So, maria, can you go to graphics over there on the right side? It’s a very interactive show. It’s a very interactive show, yeah, design. And then, under video clips, click the thing on the left, the left one. Yep, click that one.
Ryan Freng:
We’re going to play Two Truths and a Lie. We’re going to get to know Sam a little bit better. I feel like we play this every time we go and hang out anyway, but this is a fun part of the process. So you’re going to come up with three facts about yourself, and one of them is going to be a lie. Yeah, yeah, no, it’s better. This way, we’ll see how good of a liar you are. One is a lie, the other two are truths, and it is our goal and the goal of people listening at home to determine what the lie is.
Ryan Freng:
Two truths and a lie. We can give you a second too if you want to think about it or write it down. Um, I can vamp while we’re doing it too. Let’s see we do have another episode coming up as well. I, I can plug that um with Tara, and I don’t know how to say her last name. I probably should have asked Goyan um, who actually works at the Petrus uh foundation and they help Catholic and nonprofit groups do fundraising and promotion, um, so we met them at the Congress and that was really great. Talk to her. We’re going to have her on the happy hour and just pick her brain about all the, all the things. You’re looking at me, are you ready? I, uh, I’m just trying to think of yeah, you’re like I’m just thinking about the lie. Figure out the lie. I’m trying to think about it. Oh, we did have one guy who told us three lines, three truths. What did Brent do? I can’t remember. He cheated, yeah, he just forgot and just told us three truths, yeah. And then we like at the end, after we were guessing, he’s like I actually forgot. And then it’s still yeah, okay, I think I’m on. Okay, all right, yeah, okay, I think I’m on. Okay, alright, what do you got? Any order you want?
Ryan Freng:
I ruptured my spleen and was within 20 minutes of bleeding to death when I was 16. I have caught a 360 pound maroon off the coast of Vanuatu. So many tiny details in that one. My uncle has been in a calendar with a famous comedian filled with different pig shots. By that I mean position figurine. I’m not very familiar with pig shots.
Ryan Freng:
All right, so the first one is you ruptured your spleen when you were 16 and were 20 minutes away from bleeding out. Number two you caught a 300 and some pound marlin off the coast of Puerto Vallarta. Is, you ruptured your spleen when you were 16 and were 20 minutes away from bleeding out. Number two you caught a 300 and some pound marlin off the coast of puerto vallarta I don’t know something, spanish vanuatu. And then number three your uncle is in a pig calendar with a comedian. Yeah, those are good. Yeah, those are really good. I don’t even know if that place is like a real place. Yeah, right, he’s like stupid. He’s stupid green, stupid gringos. We’ll give, we’ll give them. Let’s see a couple online. You can guess Number one, number two, number three Ruptured his spleen almost died, almost bled out, caught a huge marlin somewhere down south and then has an uncle who’s a pig aficionado and was in a calendar with a comedian.
Ryan Freng:
This is a challenging one, okay, so we’ve got to reverse engineer it. Yeah, work it backwards. This is how they had a lot of details in them too, so any one of the details would be a lie. So we have a farm background, so that’s kind of checking out. I mean I don’t know why it’s checking out. I mean they do weird things like pig calendars. Yeah, comedian pig calendar. Yeah, sounds like a jeff foxworthy thing.
Ryan Freng:
And larry the cable guy you’re not into pig poses. That one’s good, I think. The puerto vallarta one is good because he was there and he likes to do a lot of outdoor stuff. Yeah, the fishing I can control fishing. I don’t know, is it a minor detail? 360 pound marlin, I don’t even know. Again, that’s like reasonable. Yeah, be like. Oh yeah, that biggest one I ever caught was like 10 pounds. I, I don’t even know. Definitely tuna. There’s other big fish you can get. Lane Norton was fishing and caught some several hundred pound.
Ryan Freng:
It’s also the psychological game of like, where do you put the line up? I feel like the spleen could be. The long was that sports related the spleen it was. It might not have been the spleen, it might have been something else. Yeah, like Henrik, look at his face when he said that I’m not a good poker, or he’s not a good spleen, or it’s heavy because it’s like when they’re going for your bluff, right, and he can’t contain the emotion. Yeah, that’s right. This is a therapy session, you guys? Yeah, your wife is like you idiots. I could tell you what it is. She probably knows your poker face. All right, I’m going to explain. You’re going to explain. Do you have any guesses?
Ryan Freng:
At home, on the chat, there’s people actually watching. There’s a couple. Yeah, we do it live because it’s easier to switch now than to edit later. And then we’re like, oh, just go live, huge audience. There’s singles and singles of people Could be pairs upon pairs, could be your odds. Could be my friend. My aunts are frequent watchers, yeah, and Carolyn, our good friend, but not my wife. My wife has like never caught one of these. It’s probably good. Yeah, that’s why the marriage is. Marriage is okay.
Ryan Freng:
Are we talking about waterboarding? Um, okay, so spleen I was gonna go spleen. Um, marlin, who’s in home marlin somewhere. Calendar I want the pig calendar to be true. I don’t know enough about fish and your face looked kind of lie-y when I asked you to follow up about the spleen. So I’m going to go spleen as well. Those are our two guesses. Two spleens. Anybody else? All right Guesses are locked in. So they’d go to Vanuatu. It was the original Tribunji jumping was invented. Oh, I followed your ways. It was our second honeymoon Went there and we did, but not big more. That was legit.
Ryan Freng:
Quick question how much meat do you get off a 300-pound pound? That’s the funny part. We had already kept a 90-pound marlin and we tagged the marlin and let it go. But you had to hold it and so we did a measurement. So it was an estimate, but it was about 350 pounds. I have kept a 160-pound marlin off of the coast of Manzanillo in Mexico, but this was elsewhere. So marlin off of the coast of manzanillo and mexico, but this was, you know, elsewhere. So you get a lot. It’s the answer. Yeah, that sounds amazing. A lot of beverages and kept the fish rollo the eggs under that binge right in a month. That was a treat. Uh, our, my mother-in-law was not impressed. So, yeah, so I caught the marlin.
Ryan Freng:
I was 16 years old and we’re at the state tournament in Stevens Point and I pitched the first game for the baseball championship. Second game. There was a collision and I collided with the center fielder, caught the ball I was running in shortstop jump, hit me in the chest, my spleen swung and sliced on my floating rib and I was within minutes of bleeding out. And sliced on my floating rib and I was within minutes of bleeding out. So they had to take me to the hospital. And, yeah, stayed up there and went for a week. Yeah, that was in 1992. So straight to the emergency room and they, like, opened you up or I think I almost passed out From like blood loss. Yeah, wow, it was crushing my lungs. The blood was in my abdomen, just squeezing my lungs shut. It was crushing my lungs. The blood was in my abdomen, just squeezing my lungs shut. So nobody knew that. And so we got back to the dugout. My cat passed out and came to. So then they took me to the hospital. That was something. Wow, we did win state that year, but I was in the hospital for the championship game. No, thanks to you.
Ryan Freng:
And then my uncle actually was in a calendar Sheep. Oh, that was good. I liked your pixel. Who was the comedian? It’s not Gallagher, it’s the. I’m blanking on it. I’ll send you a picture of the calendar. But it’s the crazy guy. Like the 80s, from the 80s. Yeah, it will come to me.
Ryan Freng:
I feel like I was just learning about him word glasses. He was like this Latino, father Guido Sarducci not who I was thinking, father Guido, like a priest? No, no, but he wasn’t. That was his role, father Guido. No, alright, oh my gosh, father Guido. No, I’ll get a copy of the account.
Ryan Freng:
All right, it was sheep. It was sheep. Oh my gosh, sheep. There are laws in some states that you can’t put a sheep’s back legs in your boots. You can read into that what you want. That sounds like an Old Testament thing. Yeah right, sounds like a how do know? Public special interest. You know, stop people from doing that stuff.
Ryan Freng:
So in New Zealand there were 15 sheep per person. My roommate was a seven-footer from New Zealand Played basketball. I played baseball. He said when they were kids they used to jump on the rams back and hold on, but when they got older they got smarter and they would take them to the edge. The Rams would oh Sorry, basic, not my joke, not my joke, it’s okay, it’s not my. We got to bring back dirty jokes In the right setting. I have a cigar group now and occasionally dirty joke comes out like oh, it’s so good, feel, I feel 12 again.
Ryan Freng:
I feel remember the nostalgic, I feel like okay, and then we gotta, we’ll end. But the whole idea of nostalgia like the good old days, like you ever are you ever in the good old days. But I think there’s this idea of like you, you have an emotional memory of a certain time, and a lot of times it’s like when somebody’s taking care of you, and so it’s like the good old days where back when I was young, well, you didn’t have responsibilities, like you didn’t have the anxiety that you have now. But how can you get yourself into that place? Like go up to the cabin and go fishing, and like the good old days are now too, but it’s like when you can have intentionality with those around you. So that’s how I’m gonna wrap it up, sam.
Ryan Freng:
Thank you so much for coming and hanging a little happy hour. Um, I was very close to mixing more drinks, but then I was like I need to get home tonight still, uh, but I hope we can hang out soon. I don’t think they. Uh, st ambrose has like a returning parent party. I mean, we had the carbon 4 one. I don’t know if you were at that one. Um, and then, uh, yeah, I don’t know what next party we’ll see you at. What is this? What is that to hang out? Otherwise, you’ll be great. Yeah, thanks for coming on. Is there anything? Uh, you want to plug Anything cool at 1848? You want to share? I mean, appreciate the opportunity, but I don’t have anything shameless that I need to plug about our website so you can need it. You’ll see your signs everywhere and if you need something built, give Sam a call. Right, that’d be great. All right, we got anything else. If you build it, they will. That’s what they say. Well, thanks for hanging. That’s what we got. We’ll see you next time.
