Broken Tiles
Life is complicated and messy...Brian & Stacey Upton play question games each episode that spark intimate and personal revelations about their marriage, personal hopes and fears, raising kids and the challenge of planning the next chapter. Follow us on Instagram! www.instagram.com@thebrokentilespodcast
Broken Tiles
The 30,000 Foot Lightning Bolt of Inspiration
What happens when a lightning bolt of inspiration hits you at 30,000 feet? For Russ Rogers, it transformed him from landscaper and personal trainer into a children's book author and movement creator dedicated to reconnecting families through physical activity.
In this heartfelt conversation, Russ takes us from his childhood on a Modesto farm to his college baseball career at Cal Poly Pomona, where influential coaches helped shape his life philosophy. His journey winds through coaching softball at Bethany University, where he learned a powerful lesson: his least talented team won the most games because they were unified, while his most talented team struggled due to division. This insight about human connection would later fuel his mission.
The true magic happens when Russ shares the origin story of Move Today 365. After carrying an empty journal for over a year, a mysterious "download" experience on a flight to New York compelled him to write for hours, capturing ideas about movement and family connection. Through a chance meeting with a publisher at a birthday party (one of many serendipitous moments in his journey), these musings evolved into a series of children's books encouraging families to disconnect from devices and reconnect with each other through outdoor activities.
Russ's authentic passion resonates throughout as he discusses his upcoming wellness event "Impact Santa Cruz Today" and his newest books—"Unplugged" and "Imagine If"—that extend his mission beyond physical movement into intentional living. His story reminds us that staying open to unexpected opportunities and embracing intentionality can lead to profound personal fulfillment and positive community impact.
Listen for a dose of inspiration that might just move you to close your laptop, put down your phone, and rediscover the joy of being present with those you love.
This is the Broken Tiles Podcast.
Speaker 2:Here we are.
Speaker 1:Back at it.
Speaker 2:It's um, well, it's what I say every time. The only thing we have is we have a really sweet hook, a professional hook that we don't deserve, and when we say back at it there's no schedule to this podcast.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:It's been a while. Yeah, hawaii, mm-hmm, we got a special guest we have a great guest sitting here with russ, rogers move today three, six, five I always kind of. For me it's like I think the series of books were today, today that's it.
Speaker 2:He done a lot. Why don't we do this right out of the gate? Um, I think for our audience it's best if you just kind of tell us a little bit about yourself, your story, and we'll kind of give you the floor a little bit. We've met you a few times, did a nice little article in last uh edition of Santa Cruz vibes in the spring issue. That's been super well received because I think it's um issue. That's been super well received because I think it's um, what you're doing, um, and you'll explain it right now when you talk about yourself. I think it uh, it's not controversial. The world has a lot of things going on right now. I think what you're doing has a very simple, organic message positive, positive yeah, boy, do we need that, we do need it all right, take a do the uh, do the humble brag.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about you. I think there's some landscaping we can connect on in life and things like that, but uh, let's just hear who you are and uh, your story a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Russ Rogers, from Modesto, California, Originally grew up on a farm. Mom, dad, three siblings uh spent a lot of time outside playing. My next oldest brother was seven years older than I. Okay, so a lot of what I did was independent from everybody else because of that age gap.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I spent a lot of time playing on my own out in the front yard, doing what boys do and playing the dirt.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We had cats, we had dogs many of them we had cows, we had horses. We did all that kind of stuff. You know we, we fed them, we ran around, we chased them, we went in the cornfields across the street and we played tag, hide and seek, we hunted for pheasants, even though I wasn't really a big hunter, but my siblings and my older brothers and my dad were.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hunter, but my siblings and my older brothers and my dad were yeah, and you did it in the Modesto in the 117 degree heat in August, which made it maybe you were already ahead of the game as far as cross training and my kid lives in Turlock now and anybody that's from here or been around here. You start drawing a line down the middle of California and you're a different breed to make it through those three months of the year.
Speaker 3:Oh, man, it gets warm. You know, I just came back from Miami a week ago and of course we didn't have the humidity yet back there. Right, but you could feel it the next day after the rain Like okay it's intense.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:In Modesto you don't get that intense. It's hot, it's dry, hot it. You know, when it's that hot it doesn't feel good, but you stay near the air conditioner or in a pool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's we all adapt, you know we adapt, and so so your kid, you're hunting, you're playing around, you're you're running. The sun comes up, you're out playing, the sun goes down, you're coming in for dinner.
Speaker 1:Not interested in hunting.
Speaker 2:Not interested in hunting and now I feel like we're. I don't know. We're going into junior high, high school. Did you stay in that area of the woods? I did.
Speaker 3:I stayed in Modesto all the way until same house, until I was 17. Oh right, on and off to college. My mom still lives there to this day. They built the house when I was six months old. That's amazing, so we have been living in that house for a long time. Just Just was there Mother's Day visiting mom.
Speaker 1:She's 86, doing well working in the garden.
Speaker 3:Incredible. She lives the exemplary life that an older person should live, because they say that gardening is one of the best things. When you age for exercise, you get the vitamin D. Of course you don't want an enormous amount, yeah, but you're out there, you're squeezing tools, you're raking, you're moving your arms. You know you're not running, of course you know, at 86,.
Speaker 2:You probably shouldn't be running, but you're moving.
Speaker 3:That's a functional movement, a lot of functional movement.
Speaker 2:It's a real sore subject for me, in a way, and because I I mean agreeing with you 150%, and there's only my mom, who's 77, lives back East on Lake Ontario. Mom who's 77, lives back East on Lake Ontario, watertown, new York, and what you're saying right now it's um, uh, she's a different human for about seven months a year when she's gardening. Yeah, and I feel so much better about her. She's a different person. We talked to her in the morning.
Speaker 1:Um, and her whole face is lit up this time of year and it lasts until winter and then it goes away.
Speaker 2:And I know she's moving, I know she's picking up stone, she's she's putting down vaults, she's doing all those small things. Um, the hardest part about us my dad passed away three years ago but is, um, you know, the three, four or five months is as brutal as this back winter. Um, I just can't think of a more stagnant lifestyle and a tougher you know kind of thing. But I'll let you keep going. But that kind of hit with me a little bit when you, when you talk about there's studies and it's, it's a part of moving and healthy aging.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there, it is Smart words.
Speaker 3:Stacy has the words.
Speaker 2:Russ, usually what happens on this podcast is I stumble around and I hover and I use a lot of meaningless words and ums and things like that, and then, in two words, she'll set me straight a little bit. So and I already forgot what they were you write them down healthy, what Aging?
Speaker 1:I knew it Stacey, I just don't do that to me, all right.
Speaker 2:So keep going. Mom's mom's still there and the house is there, and so you're there till 17. Where'd you go to school?
Speaker 3:Went to in high school, the college College Cal Poly, pomona. Oh, right on, yeah, I was going to go to Fresno State and play baseball. I was all signed up, got all my you know, all of my to-do lists done and it was accepted.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was going to go play baseball. And that summer in 85, I was approached by another local coach in Modesto and he said hey, have you ever heard of Cal Poly Pomona? And I said no, I haven't. And he said, oh well, I have some contacts there and I'd like for you to check it out. And I go well, I'm going to Fresno State to play ball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he's like well, why don't you know?
Speaker 3:just check it out and I said, all right, I'll, dad had his pilot's license and he actually got his pilot's license in lieu of the fact that I might be traveling to go play you know baseball gotcha.
Speaker 3:so he got his you know small pilot's license and flew around as a cessna 182. So we got hot in the plane and we flew down to southern california and I was picked up in this baby blue 1967, the year I was born station wagon beater yeah, Faded blue by the coach, John Sklenas, who was the winningest baseball coach in college baseball history. There was a stack of newspapers in the back seat where I was seated.
Speaker 3:My dad was in the front and my knees were all the way up to my chin. I was like I'm sitting there thinking what in the world am I doing? You know what I mean? Wait, was your coach delivering newspapers? No, these were just sports. I'm tracking you.
Speaker 2:I'm like man, this is a hardworking coach. I thought he was going to pick you up and take you on the route.
Speaker 1:I was lost in that conversation and I did have to pause for a moment and say you said your knees are up to your chin. Is this because you're such a tall guy in the back of a car.
Speaker 2:No, it's because the stack of newspapers were below my feet and I had no place to put my feet except on top of the newspapers.
Speaker 1:And kids sat in the back. Exactly, dad was up front.
Speaker 3:Yeah it didn't matter. So he was this Italian bow-legged. At that time he was a near 70-year-old coach who had won a lot of baseball games. So we went to the stadium, we checked it out, Got the tour.
Speaker 2:You know I loved it.
Speaker 3:I mean Fresno State. It's a Division I right.
Speaker 2:What position did you play? Third base? Okay, man, that's a hot corner.
Speaker 3:Hot corner, yep, and it got hotter in college, you know.
Speaker 2:Stacey. A lot of action, that's pretty, God dang it. I thought I had her. I thought I had her. That was my, I was trying to.
Speaker 3:She went to the cue cards.
Speaker 2:She's 1-0. She was 1-0 on me. I was trying to even it up, so right now I think I'll go 1-1 right now. But I really thought I had you there. I thought I had to keep going.
Speaker 3:Hot corner, yeah, um. So I went back and really basically made the biggest decision of my life a week later and I opted not to go to Fresno state and go to Cal Poly. Big decision, yeah, um. And I really felt bad because then I had to phone call the coach at Fresno state.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And it just so happened at the beginning of the next season we did a three game series at Fresno State. They ended up having about five guys on that team. That went pro.
Speaker 2:I mean this team was stacked.
Speaker 3:Tom Goodwin is one of the names who went on to play professional baseball for a very long career, played with the Dodgers and a couple other teams, but anyway, so yeah, it was a great experience though. So I made that decision and ended up going to Cal Poly greatest decision I ever made. And this was the reason why is because I knew even at 17, when I was leaving home to go to Southern California, this man was going to help form and shape my life.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 3:More than, not more than, but in addition to that's a better phrase, but in addition to. That's a better phrase, but in addition to what my parents had already implemented into my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a good coach can do that, yeah, and he did. Stacey would make the argument as far as the worlds are different and things like that, but I think she had some music teacher and teachers, and even teachers through college Doesn't have to be a coach, but you can have a mentor come out of left field that you didn't necessarily see coming. Yes, and you kind of knew it right away. Like in that visit, even I felt it Like this is something different. Yeah, I felt it.
Speaker 3:You know, the other coach at Fresno State. I mean, he's going to do his own style and I'm sure guys today look back in were formative years that they were just so happy to play. But I just, I don't know. I just felt something inside like this is the place for me, and made some very meaningful relationships there. Um, great coaches. Um, had a great stint, you know, playing baseball there. Um, and just love my time at Cal Poly.
Speaker 2:Most people don't finish out. Do you play four years? Play four years you did? Yeah that it doesn't work out that way. As far as like the idea especially of athletics transitioning out of high school into college, academics, life, maturity, things like that, especially playing at that level, it doesn't always work out to an entire four-year career.
Speaker 3:Well, I had a couple of buddies, one that I went to high school with. He transferred from one of the local high schools over to our school, Modesto Christian, his junior year, Yep, and he ended up going to Merced Junior College, Okay. And then after two years there he transferred down to Cal Poly, ended up playing with me and we ended up rooming. And then another guy that we played with in our younger years in Little League and stuff like that, he ended up coming down. So the three of us, you know we hung out together.
Speaker 2:We just had our 40th anniversary last weekend, so we had a lot of stories being thrown around you know it was, it was great. I'm going to draw a line in college right now and see if I don't even know if our soundboard works here. Stace, let's see here.
Speaker 1:Hold on, I don't know you were supposed've got backups.
Speaker 2:I mean I can play transitional music anytime. This can be our music, transitional. I'll keep pausing it through. This sounds upbeat. Sounds exciting. For Stacey's first question. I don't know where this song's going.
Speaker 1:You know where it's going Question one, question one. So this is how we do it, russ I pose questions, we each take turns answering and then we talk about it and we always make Stacy go first while we think about really good answers. We, we.
Speaker 2:I love that we're teamed up. Now we're here. He's here. I'm telling him how the game's played.
Speaker 1:I'm going to ask you to go first. Okay, when you're down, what makes you feel better?
Speaker 3:Hmm, sunshine.
Speaker 1:Ooh, I love that.
Speaker 2:This guy's super good at the game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he is, he's quick.
Speaker 3:We call it the sunshine vitamin.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, think about that.
Speaker 2:Keep going Right Exposition now. So the first thing.
Speaker 3:I live in a studio in Capitola, yeah, and my door faces the east. So the first thing I do when I wake, even though the sun is not up, first thing I do is open the door, and my bed faces that direction. And so when that sun does come up like well, like today, it was foggy but still I open the door and you get that fresh air.
Speaker 2:No doubt Ocean's right there.
Speaker 3:You can smell it, you can hear it, you know people are coming and going, fishermen are already coming in, so there's life immediately. And that's the first thing I do year round is open that door. So even if the sun is not shining, I know it's there still shining on the other side of that totally get that so it's just for me it's a sunshine vitamin.
Speaker 1:I like it I like that a lot repeat the question, please when you're down, what makes you feel better?
Speaker 2:um, uh, vision quest in the sauna heat. Oh yeah, that is your thing heat. If I'm feeling like a little funky and it's kind of counterintuitive, um, actually the reality of it is all the way out is is heat cold and so for me it started when I was a teenager.
Speaker 2:Over on 41st Avenue, um at spa fitness it used to be called in the in the seventies and eighties, um, I think it's in shape now, over there the big one. They got a very unique spot. There was the sauna, the um steam room and then the 55 degree dip tank which is um is. When I was playing football in high school, one of my freshman year, I think my coach recommended it because we had a membership there that you know, with some of the soft tissue stuff, go over there and get in the dip tank and kind of like it was before we had an ice bath.
Speaker 1:It's part of your healing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, before we had the ice bath my junior year, so I went over there. I really enjoyed it, no-transcript. But then I don't think I'd ever been in a sauna when I was 13 for any reason, right, I just don't think I'd ever found my way in. But I found my way in there and really almost fell asleep in there for a long time, but still had to do my little therapy and that for me was just a transformative moment, like being, you know, in 190 degrees for 30, 40 minutes and then going into that tank was shocking. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:I just want to ask you to elaborate on the vision quest, because you said that very quickly but maybe not everybody knows what you mean, Stacey is an international man of mystery. I threw that out there.
Speaker 2:I was going to circle back around to that. And you know that's how you build a narrative.
Speaker 1:You build a narrative by, like you know, teasing the audience in Leaving a little bit out.
Speaker 2:Russ doesn't know this, but you know, we've occasionally been number 17 with this podcast in Venezuela, and so I'm not playing to this audience. You so I'm not playing to this audience.
Speaker 1:you or Russ, or Santa Cruz or the vibes?
Speaker 2:This is how I can connect with my Venezuelan audience right now Okay. Meandering narratives that eventually come back to what I was talking about.
Speaker 1:All right, let's hear it, but can I finish what I?
Speaker 2:love about Kate. Can I finish my story please? You can, you can, and what I found, though, though, is that I've never stopped doing that. I'll go out of my way to to um, even extend that heat. You know, find that cold um it. It just balances me out. The vision quests are, um innumerable amounts, I found I really push myself, sometimes up to an hour and 15 minutes, sometimes an hour hour. I don't ever overdo it. I basically just let my heart rate tell me when it's time to get out of the sauna. Sometimes it's 35 minutes, 40 minutes, sometimes it's an hour and 15.
Speaker 2:Um, but at that peak of sort of, when I'm at my maximum, um, I ended up getting some really good ideas in there, and I don't know, I know there's some, you know there's some tenants of that. There's some places you can go where you can, and even there's some dangerous stories. I know that have occurred. But it is a little bit of a separation, it's a little bit outside of my normal. You know, kind of like, you know, frame of reference, and I'm fighting the heat, I'm fighting my blood pressure a little bit, but I'll walk out of there a lot of times and write down ideas for a storybook, ideas for vibes, and sometimes it's very just clinical, a business idea, something to do smarter in business. And she's the first one to always hear it, you know.
Speaker 2:I had an idea in there.
Speaker 1:Well, it's either in a vision quest or when you're dreaming is when it happens for you. But I think that says a lot, where you're in a total state of relaxation and you're not forcing anything, so it just happens.
Speaker 2:I feel like you're giving me a lesson, right. I think there was more in that that I was supposed to grab onto that, no.
Speaker 1:Do you want me to repeat the question to you? Stacy's very deep. She is very deep. No, you don't have to repeat the question to me Because I couldn't. Okay, then let's try, let's see what you got.
Speaker 2:I don't know what makes you happy. I don't know what. I can't remember what it was when you're down.
Speaker 1:What makes you feel I? Already know your answer, oh tell me, what do you think? My answer is here.
Speaker 2:This is like the Chris Angel Mind Freak magic.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're writing it down, okay.
Speaker 2:What makes you happy when you feel down?
Speaker 1:Being in the forest.
Speaker 2:Walk in the woods. There it is right there. Yeah, you know me, go ahead Expand.
Speaker 1:Wow. Well, this really started because I grew up in the mountains in Colorado and whenever I was stressed actually I spent so much time out there I would just our back door literally was at the base of a mountain and I'd just walk out and I'd walk to my favorite spot that my sister and I inexplicably named Teddy Bear Squeeze, which is a big, huge rock and a couple of other rocks around it in the midst of all these trees, and that's where I hung out and we played.
Speaker 2:It's your jam. It really is, and I think I don't care what the circumstance is If you're in a good mood, it puts you in a better mood.
Speaker 2:If you're in a good mood it puts you in a better mood If you're in a terrible mood for her. And I think by assimilation even having the luck to grow up here so close to these redwoods, so close to the water we find our different things, but I think by assimilation, through the relationship, I found a place more in the woods than I did before I met you. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it means a lot to me. So now I'll just go up to Nicene Marks and take a walk there. It's so convenient and accessible and it's like immediate peace. Uh, my goal when I uh retire is to be, uh, a forest therapist. You may have heard of I can't remember what it's called right now, but the Japanese art of forest bathing. So there's a lot of research to support the calming effect of being in the midst of a forest and I feel that, and I think I would love to be able to support other people doing that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and do a guided walk and talk about different things, point different things out and really help them experience what it feels like to be in their body in this state of calm.
Speaker 3:Nice, love that.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 3:It's my goal, you know being that we're so close to the forest, I don't take advantage a lot of times because I'm really a beach guy, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I find that at the beach I like that I get that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is our bumper music going back in as we slowly listen. This is the. Do you recognize the song yet?
Speaker 1:I sure do.
Speaker 2:That's right. Well, this is the Bard. This is the Bard. This is. Take On Me. It's like Bard music from like a medieval festival of. Take On Me. We'll tell them about that a little bit later, but really right now this is just a simple wistful transition back into we just graduated college and we're back with Russ. I can't wait to see what happens next.
Speaker 1:Agreed.
Speaker 2:So there you are. That's awesome. So you leave Cal Poly, and then where are we at?
Speaker 3:Leave Cal Poly After finishing four years of ball. It kind of took a year just to kind of hang around LA for a year. Same area Pomona Ended up volunteering at a church, volunteering as a junior high pastor.
Speaker 3:Oh, right on yeah getting in a lot of trouble with the junior high kids, meaning we'd go on snow trips and we were coming back down. We had a 15-passenger van and I didn't have a license to drive the van. So the college pastor said I'll drive the van because he's got the license. We had six extra so we decided we'll just throw the six extra, made it 21 in the van to go up on this trip. You know, it's just about an hour and a half away.
Speaker 2:Something you could not do these days.
Speaker 3:No, no no, not at all. So we packed them in. I mean, they were in every nook and cranny of that van. So I'm in the front passenger seat. He's driving. We got kids between us on the ground and the floor of the van, and so we go up this bend and there's a bankment up to my right. We come around the bend, there's a rock, a good size, you know, one and a half by one and a half foot rock. Yeah, sitting right on the white line, on the edge. Oh shit, and I'm in my head I'm thinking, ah, he sees that.
Speaker 3:I mean it's right there in front of us yeah, nope, my tire underneath me hit that rock it, you know, just busted in the whole wheel, drum tire, everything. We went right up that embankment upside down in the middle of our lane well, luckily there wasn't 21 kids in it without seatbelts.
Speaker 2:Without seatbelts oh, I mean, at least that didn't happen, right, thank god, thank god, this story, this is where I don't listen to anything you're saying, but I mean.
Speaker 3:Seatbelts Without seatbelts.
Speaker 2:That didn't happen, right, goodness, thank God. Thank God, this story. This is where I don't listen to anything you're saying, but the only thing I'm thinking right now is thank God there's not 21 kids without seatbelts in there, so keep going.
Speaker 3:So the 19 kids were on the roof of the van and Mark and I are dangling from seatbelts in the front and we had help from, you know, people that were coming up and behind us, that you know broke out the front and the back and we all crawled out and we got to the side and the only damage that was done besides the van being totaled, was we had a broken pinky. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:A broken pinky?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is a, and so we're standing, you know we're standing on the side of the road and we're like, all right, kids disperse, Because when the police get here we don't want to have a head count. You know, no doubt. But anyway, yeah, that's just one of those. You know, young and dumb and crazy things, you know. Yeah, Just go into the snow for the day. That's it, we would be safe Right.
Speaker 1:Right yeah, right right yeah. You don't even think about nothing, no, you just seize the rock going there.
Speaker 3:he sees the rock. Oh my god, no, he didn't see the rock. But um, yeah. So we, you know, went out, you know, after that, and I had met a gal at cal poly, and we ended up moving north, coming up to modesto okay and we ended up getting married, having kids, and then I ended up working as a development director at bethany university in scot Valley.
Speaker 2:Oh, I remember Bethany Right up kind of go right up the hill there a little bit right on the right-hand side, correct? I remember that I feel like there was a basketball. Was there a basketball court up there? There was. We used to practice up there, I think in high school. But go ahead.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know it. So I was there as a development director and then when the softball coach had learned about my background in baseball he had asked. He said, hey, why don't you come out? And you know, if you want to give some of your time and your expertise in helping out the kids, that'd be great. So I would go out there every once in a while. Well then, the year after that he ended up taking a pay raise in his electrician job and so they asked me, kind of as deferred, you know uh, to take over the coach. And so I did a development officer, raising money for the school, redeveloping the campus, and then also head softball coach for seven years.
Speaker 3:And it was it was, uh, it was an amazing experience and you know the bond you know with, uh, the, the girls of the team and you know year after year you're recruiting, and the parents and the relationship. You know, cause it's a small school, there was about 400 students on campus, so you know that was it was very tight knit group you know from year after year, but the you know I had one of the years we had the greatest talent of players that I had ever had.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And we had the worst year that we ever had.
Speaker 2:There's a lesson in there somewhere, right, that's a major lesson. There's a major lesson in there somewhere, right, that's a major lesson.
Speaker 3:There's a major lesson in there, because we were, the team was divisive. Yeah, like you know, they were just, we were fragmented, we weren't a team, right, and that was my lesson. It's like doing whatever you can do to bring the team in, but there was a few little cancerous people that were players that you know were divisive to the team and we were fragmented.
Speaker 3:The very next year I probably had the least talented team and we won the most games that I had ever coached in the seven years at Bethany because that team was bonded. They wanted to spend as much time as they could together outside. We went to one of the parents' house up in Placerville.
Speaker 2:We would do team events and just bonding, you know, hanging out and building, and it was the greatest time I remember that I coached 20 years back East varsity football and kind of the saying goes it's like you'd be at a coaching conference. You'd be talking with everybody and they'd be like, how's it look this year? And you'd be like, it's a pretty good locker room. It's a pretty good locker room. Yeah, it's a pretty good locker room. And if the locker room's good, the rest of it sort of I'm not saying it ever takes care of itself, but if you've got a good locker room, those are the teams.
Speaker 2:It's a handful 20 years probably six teams that sort of bought in. Six teams that sort of were easy to be with, had leaders that weren't overwhelming. You know vocal slash by example, um, but yeah, man, as a coach, when you have a, when you have a comfortable, good kind of cohesive locker room, it's um, uh, it's almost like that earlier conversation that we talk about it Like that's inclusive sometimes. But we go through the same thing with our work life right now. Right, like, as far as like, if you have a good team and you, have a good group it translates to chemistry culture.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think um, we have to remember that as human beings, I think we've evolved to live in community and we need to do what we can to emulate that and to create opportunity for it to grow. It's important.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we do well with it. How old are your kids?
Speaker 3:36, 31, 29. Girl, girl, boy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got, you, got me beat you, you it's. It's hard because we're, you know, I think you got me beat by one year, but I think we're what? 34, I think that's right. It's nice to find a brother in arms that got started early and has kids more towards AARP than away from it. That's a whole, as we say in this weird business. It's a whole different podcast talking about how trippy it is to see your kids, because I'm sure here's the deal. You were probably in your late, what, mid, late 20s, early 30s coaching at Bethany, yes, yeah. And now your kids are, whatever they're doing right now. You have this little frame of reference. We're talking here in 2025, in our 50s, about these little moments that are vivid, and then you look down at your kids and they're living it right now.
Speaker 3:They're living it, they're in it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, so after Bethany.
Speaker 3:So after Bethany, so after Bethany, what did I do? Okay, so after Bethany, I coached, and while I was coaching, because of where I was as a coach, people in the community are coming to you and saying because of your position like hey, can you help my kid you know, get better at hitting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I started this little side business of personal training and it was really, really fun. So I would do, you know, a few hours here, a few hours there, and then you know, people start talking and then then it kind of grew and grew and grew. Well then the development office was ending. We had, you know, basically maxed out our funds and everything that we're going to do for eight years, so it was like all right, it's time to leave.
Speaker 3:Well, part of working at Bethany was developing the outside, which is the landscaping part of it.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 3:So I started when I left Bethany. I started a landscape company and I started a personal training business, and I did them simultaneously.
Speaker 2:Never have those two been combined before in the history of mankind. That's a. That's a. I like it, though, because I think what you did is you found a way, and I'm sure we'll get to this after the second question, as we go into more of the, the, the subject of the day, which is your company now, but you've. You seems like you're the kind of dude that keeps on finding your way where you're going to work, but you also want to be going to work.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, how'd landscaping go for you? Awesome, did you have a small like were you? Did you do some commercial or just residential?
Speaker 1:All residential, all residential.
Speaker 3:Even to this day, yeah.
Speaker 2:You're still doing it now. Still doing it now. How many houses-ish?
Speaker 3:Well, we have maintenance, we do installs, we do decks, fences, everything All of it. Yeah, we do it all. It's a rewarding job. It is rewarding, and the reason it's rewarding is because you can take a piece of dirt and make something beautiful, you know, and by putting in some hardscape or some lawn or synthetic grass and some flowers no doubt about it Just beautify.
Speaker 2:There's so many, um, I talk about it cause I did it in high school and I came back and I've been working for Emerald city landscaping since we came back for like last 10 years and, um, there's so many different jobs, you have so many different things you do, um, but there's not a lot of them where you look back and you're like that's different than when I showed up, yeah, and that that's super rewarding. So there's a lot of times, even in vibes, where it's just off into the ether yes, yeah, that's it, the magazine the payoff takes so long.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the magazine's a moment. It looks great there it is, but it still sort of have made a difference there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think it's that, that feeling of the physical work that you did too and you see what that did for you, and that's that is it feels good yeah.
Speaker 3:And, and I enjoy the process.
Speaker 2:Right yeah, I enjoy the process.
Speaker 3:So when you think about the process of landscaping through a, a job that maybe take one to three months, you know, depending on the job. So one to three months, it's the same, you know. It's that same feeling when you take a kid and you train them from having struggles in a specific part of their game, taking them through the process and then seeing the outcome.
Speaker 2:And it's really the same thing. For me it is, and I think, taking a kid training them. I think that's going to be going to question too, but also I think it's a good hook, for I think I know where we're going next with this whole training and health and things like that. Give it a little room here, stace, before you jump on it. I will, I will the um.
Speaker 2:The story behind this is that my musical taste is all over the place. Um, you know, it can be super, it can be screamo metal, it can be reggae, remo metal, it can be reggae. It can be um, uh, you know violin, agnes, so, but I mean it's, it's truly. And then everybody says that, but mine's kind of all over. But um, aha in 1981 was a band and they had this song, take on me, which everybody knows that song, but um, it's uh, for me it was a, it was a signature moment. I felt like I found this little record that nobody was listening to in 80 or 81 down at Logos Record Store and it's kind of an ongoing joke in our family that this is sort of my jam and it's a weird one, but it also makes a way to every single podcast that we have.
Speaker 1:Yes, it does In many different forms. Question two babe, Okay, I just changed it out.
Speaker 2:I noticed that. What it?
Speaker 1:was was. Would you rather live by the beach or in the mountains? And I kind of think we already answered it so that one's gone and I just pulled this out. What would you most like to do for somebody else if you had the money and the time?
Speaker 2:Ooh, stacey, you go first. I let's see Money and time. I guess this is more money.
Speaker 1:That no Okay. So really I would. I would like to have a home near our kids and Brian and I disagree on this, and so it might mean three different homes, because they all live in three different places, and I would like to go spend time with them and I think I'm like hoping to someday be a grandparent and then I'll be able to have, you know, opportunity to help them with that. But even if that doesn't ever happen, I I love spending time with them and I miss them, um, but they also need to have their own home and their own life. So for me to have a home near them so I could support them, that would be awesome.
Speaker 2:Right, that's beautiful. Yeah, that's. That's a really good answer. I think mine's going to be. Give me that card. I feel like you went. What would you most like to do? For someone else if you had the money and the time. Yeah, oh, you would do that. So in theory, you else if you had the money and the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, you would do that. So in theory, you're doing that for the kids, for them, yeah, again, there you go. Here's the thing it's like. This is what now we're going to couples therapy here is that I just know. Our argument is this, that it always kind of comes down to that, even in this question, and for me, I just think there's a folly in chasing these kids as they're chasing their dreams, because right now, if we were doing that card and moving it, they'd be gone. One would be in brooklyn, one would be back here in california.
Speaker 1:We might be it's three houses what's that? That's why I want to buy three houses.
Speaker 2:And they move again. Six Sure.
Speaker 1:Money and time.
Speaker 2:Money and time for someone else, and that's a huge assumption that they'd always want us crawling all over their shit wherever they move, so they move. And then there we are again. Maybe it's more for me than that, I think that's what I was trying to organically get at Correct.
Speaker 1:He's struggling with this one. That's what I was trying to organically get at Ruska.
Speaker 3:He's struggling with this one.
Speaker 2:I struggle with every one of these questions every time. This is really great having a guest, though. Because you go Russ, you can defer, you can defer, you go.
Speaker 3:Well, stacey, I want to play off of what you said. Okay, going back to my childhood, even to this day, is that my parents had established a home. Nobody lived in this home once they left. It was their home. We grew up into it. We all left when we're 17, 18, only to come back and visit parents in their home. But now, having my mom, having grandkids and great grandkids, you know, there's like if we all got together, there's like 54 of us with my brothers and their kids and on down, and so there is a home, there is a place, there is a hub, there is love in this place that everyone wants to return to, you know. And so, going off of what you just said, that is, that's amazing, that is, it's very rare.
Speaker 1:It is very it's very rare.
Speaker 3:But you know, like my nephew, he works in the air force in Nebraska. He flew out to Moffett field. They had a training. They were supposed to come and then just take off, but there was a storm between here and Nebraska on the return, so they stayed the night. Guess what he did? He went around, he visited his brother, he visited his sister, and then he went to my mom's house.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:Because that is home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that Like he never he lived.
Speaker 3:They actually lived in the back. They have another house in the back and they lived there for a number of years when he worked at Travis. Yeah, but my point is is that it's just, it is home and there is love in that home, and my parents always had open arms, they always wanted to serve, they always wanted to give, and so we have within us that. So, when my answer to your question is to basically implement that and exemplify to other people that same I really like that yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's beyond and it's beyond family, but it's two families.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now, that that's. Those are two really good answers. Um, you guys must really like your kids detached from this whole conversation.
Speaker 1:He's still struggling with his answer.
Speaker 2:No, I know, I know what my answer is Mine's more, mine's broader, but it's it's and it's recent, it's okay, I've got some recency bias. Here is I think I would pour all of that into um, this same thing, even the meeting before this, I think I would pour it into this whole militant sort of mission I'm on right now is putting these nonprofits in a for-profit space and I think you know it's a singular thing for someone else because, here's the thing.
Speaker 2:There is some selfishness in it In doing this. There is a minimum three to one reward for this.
Speaker 2:It feels, like personally partnering the way we did and sort of going on this mission through our platforms and things like that. To simply put nonprofits in a for-profit space is sort of the mission of it. I would just love to have more resources, more money into that, because I think it would make me more whole. Because I think it would make me more whole and if I'm more whole, like and fulfilled that way, then I think I'm just a better person for things like this or like in person, like this, and so the selfish part of it would be that. But I think if it was unlimited, I think my first instinct is to pour it in there and it's not so much as just dumping it somewhere else. I think my gut feeling is it's going to make me more complete.
Speaker 1:I think it's interesting that you bring up it's selfish, because every one of us landed on something that would make us feel good and if you think about supporting different nonprofits, you know, supporting different causes, what drives us to do that One? It might be we really want to ameliorate the stressors of somebody else, but also we feel good because we can do it, and I think that is I don't know a human characteristic that moves us to do these things. Yeah, and that's not a bad thing. I don't know a human characteristic that moves us to do these things yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's not a bad thing. I don't know that it's selfish. It's interesting to think about.
Speaker 2:I don't even realize. I don't think I thought of it. Did I say selfish? I think you did, or maybe that's just you said.
Speaker 1:well, I think, when I said, oh, maybe this is for me than for the kids Tracking you. Yeah, and then you said something along those lines, but I don't remember exactly what word you used.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's because you're distracted because you're using big, huge words like ameliorate, oh, my gosh. Maybe the fact that you have that word like queued up for 20 minutes, like you're completely disengaged from, like the humanity of this conversation? Cause you're like did you plan on using that this whole time? Did you have even helped like weeks? No, Just waiting to drop off ameliorate.
Speaker 3:I think it was in that. I think it was in those cards.
Speaker 2:He did Clearly, clearly. Clearly, you used it the right way, because I get the gist of it. I wouldn't have known if she was the right way or not, I wouldn't either, but it was the way she said it. It made sense. Yeah, it seems like you make room for, or make space for, what does ameliorate.
Speaker 1:Lesson something.
Speaker 2:Lesson something Ameliorate.
Speaker 1:I want to lessen the suffering of another person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Can you ameliorate Like? Can you help me right now? Can you lessen my suffering right now by using much smaller words? Lesson.
Speaker 1:That's lesson. That's the thing. Did we all answer yes?
Speaker 2:I won that one right.
Speaker 1:This is not a contest.
Speaker 3:We have to go with ameliorate. I'm putting down three too.
Speaker 2:No, that's Mark's off. It was only between you and me at the end there. All right, so I think we're getting to the fun part here, which is, I think we get a sense of who you are, and I always kind of like to just like the magazine. I think we can get right to it and say what are you here to sell, and all that stuff. But, um, I think we get down to this part now and, um, we're moving through life a little bit, we're getting closer to where it is now, um, so I think we're landscaping, we're doing some personal training and then, um, within the last how many years now, did you make the? Did you make the big change?
Speaker 3:here Um. Started in 2020. 2020. Pivoted in 2020.
Speaker 2:And what was the tipping point for all of this? And let's name it what it is. It's moved today 365, right, it is. And was it a? Were you in a sauna? Were you possibly is there any chance you were possibly overheated terribly?
Speaker 3:when this idea came. Well, fortunately the engines were not, because I was 30 000 feet in the air. Oh, when it all happened yeah, really tell us the story. Yeah, so you know it all started in 2020 when covet hit and everything and no parks, no schools to do training, right. So months go by, we're still doing the landscaping, still doing the landscaping today. So I just said, you know, maybe after after about six months of that, I was like maybe I'll just focus on landscaping and then just put training to the side for now.
Speaker 3:So which I did Then, after about a year, I was like, you know, I think I'm done, I'm done with coaching, I'm done with training. I've done, you know, a few lessons here and there, but not many. But now I do, I don't do any at all. So in 2020, 2020 I pivoted and then, a year and a half later, I was on a flight, 30,000 feet up, heading to New York City, and I had bought this journal about a year prior and carried it everywhere I went and I did not write one word in that journal. It sat empty for a year, over a year. I was on that flight and all of a sudden, I had this download that came lightning bolt experience and I opened up that. I reached into my backpack, I opened up that journal and I wrote the word move.
Speaker 2:First word yeah.
Speaker 3:Right at the top of the journal, drew a little rectangle around it, and then stories, life experiences, family experiences, family stories, things that I've witnessed, beach stuff, anything that just was a download into my brain. I was writing for the next three and a half hours. I really couldn't stop and it was just flowing into me. But all I thought I was doing was journaling. Sure, right, effective journaling All around movement. So over the next several months I continued to just write, not every day, but just periodically. Something would hit me, I would write it. Something would hit me, I would write it.
Speaker 3:Eight years ago today and I was at the beach with some friends and we were sitting out there having a good time, like we always do, and there were about 15 of us. This lady who was sitting off to my right I was at the end of the row of chairs she comes up and she goes. You guys have such a great time, like you just enjoy life, you know, you play games, you have fun, you know and said come join us next time. So the next weekend she did. She came and joined us. She was from Florida, she had just moved there, so fast forward a couple of years. We got to know Sue and then she got married.
Speaker 3:She ended up moving in across the street from me and so I was invited to go to her birthday party. It was a small gathering, and in that birthday was a lady named Indiana Rivera, who lived maybe a quarter mile away from me, who I never knew, lived in the community for years, author publishing company. We connected, we had coffee. Three days later I shared with her all in my journal all these stories she teared up and she says you really have something here. And I'm like what? Yeah, she's like you have a book. You could put a book and make a book out of this. So started she. She encouraged me to take this process of getting eight and a half by eight and a half papers you know, cutting them up, stapling together and create this blank landscape. Amazing, we go back to landscape and start to fill in these things.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so I ended up creating five books out of this. I took her thought and and created five different books, and it's basically the first five years of a kid's life, and over the next year and a half, her and her team and I, we Zoomed every week, going over and over and over the writings, the drawings, the animation, what the baby looked like, what the parents look like, oh, wow, Eye color, you know, you name it everything in the landscape. And I had already created images and stuffed them in on each page. Right, I taped them to the pages. In fact, I was just asked this, this question, a week and a half ago in Pittsburgh. I opened it up, I was speaking to 260 kids and one of the kids said how long did it take you, you know, to write your first book? And you know how did you create your first book? Yeah, those kinds of things, and so I was able to share with them what I'm sharing with you now, which was really an amazing experience you know, and so there was.
Speaker 3:There were pictures in there that were of my family that I wanted in there, and then her artists down in Mexico ended up putting together this book, and then we went over these books for a year and a half and created the today series.
Speaker 2:Did they all drop at the same time, or do you kind of stagger them?
Speaker 3:I dropped them all at the same time, or do you kind of stagger them? I dropped them all at the same time. Is it staged like? Is it one of the names of the books? Is it one, two, three, four, five, or they each have their? Their today, and then they have a subtopic title subtitle, which are what which is like, um you know, today my first steps okay, you know my baby steps, my first, my first you know, yeah, here we go, here we go.
Speaker 1:yeah, I love it, so they're all titled today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a little subtitle, yeah, so it was really amazing. And then you know it took us the longest to get that first book because, we had to create everything from scratch. Then the next year the baby's a little bit older, parents stay the same, but the scenery changes. The activities change, okay, so, yeah, us. The activities change okay, so, um, yeah, and so we launched that in june of 2023 amazon and all that, all that, and then any love here at lake santa cruz.
Speaker 2:Do you get it down there? Local author kind of stuff, yeah, and what was the um outside? That sounds like you know you gave us a little prelude in there as far as the kids in pittsburgh, but um, I guess there's two parts of this question. One of them is from that plane ride to the execution to human consumption. You know, I guess the first part first is what was that journey like for you, from the plane to all of that, to actually knowing you're starting to get reviews back and people are talking to you a little bit about your journal, yeah, I'll answer that in a, in a quick, and then I'll go back and and and span it out, but the quick of it is is that this was launched in June of 2023.
Speaker 3:Okay who is Russ Rogers.
Speaker 2:Nobody knows Russ Rogers except the locals right People that I hang out with family and all that.
Speaker 3:I kept everything that I had done from everybody. Nobody knew it. And then, about three months before, I had a launch date, a launch party, I just sent out all these text messages and then all my friends are like what? You're a writer? You're just like this beach bum, you know and um, but but the funny thing is it's 2023.
Speaker 3:I'm a no name when it comes to author right, being an author last a week and a half ago went to this marathon in Pittsburgh and we had a tent there, my, my dual coast partner from the East coast. We're there, we have a tent, and this gentleman walks up and he goes hey, you're Russ Rogers, like I am, and I look at Dan. I'm like how does he know?
Speaker 2:I don't know him Like you know what I mean, but he knew whether it was on social media, he would you know, it was an amazing experience for me and luckily you have a distinctive look and that does I mean again, the book's, the book, you have that one, but there's so many little passersby, but you do have that. If you connect with the book, you see it A lot of those ones.
Speaker 3:You just it'll pass you right by. But, yeah, what a feeling it was. I mean so on that level, then going back and going through the process, because the process it's not about me, it's about the process of going through that. But going through that time because I knew nothing about writing a book. I never desired to write a book, it was nothing I was aspiring to do.
Speaker 3:I didn't go to school to get educated in English and writing and all this right, journalism, nothing. That was not my background at all, but it was something of a passion that was in me and it was that experience 30,000 feet up when it hit me and I had that download. This is it. But then things have evolved over the last two and a half years that I never dreamed of Well, writing the books I never dreamed of, and then putting them into Spanish, then taking those five books, putting them in an anniversary book, which is a hardback, 120 suggested activities in there, but it's just all about encouraging families to get outside as we talk about nature right, and getting outside, getting vitamin D and spending more time together.
Speaker 3:Because now that I'm involved and engrossed in this and passionate about it, I'm always on the lookout for, like, how do people families, how do they connect? You know human connection, people you don't know, how do you? You know when you cross paths, it's all of those things. How do? How do families, people you don't know, how do you you know when you?
Speaker 3:cross paths it's all of those things. How do? How do families at the beach? How, how do they, you know, converse with one another? How do they play with one another? How do they, you know, do things? Are they cause? I've seen it all. No there's no doubt. Everybody goes on, you know, to the beach and the parents are all on their phones. Yeah Right, and so there is still a disconnect to that.
Speaker 2:No, there's no doubt, and I think even like, um, uh, you know, our interaction started, you know, just over a cold call on, you know, social emails.
Speaker 2:Um, yo, I'm a dude, I wrote some books and I'm going down to toots and giving the books away, you know, and then we put it on our Instagram story and that was the extent of it.
Speaker 2:But even over the short period of time, which is probably 18 to 24 months, if that, um, there's a, there's a movement, and not to take that, that word, but it's, it's, I think, in listening to your words, the books, um, you know, led to basically, um, a focus on the words from the books and an intentionality that's literally becoming an organized, you know, movement of people, places, events, like I know is coming up and things like that. But it's, it's incredible to see it over a very short period of time. And the other one that resonates with me is talk about it all the time is that, I think, opportunities and I think that it's passing by in front of us quite a bit. And are we open and receptive? Are we? Are we, you know, are we spinning so fast that, with those opportunities go right by us and we don't see it. But even that interaction with the publisher, that that's key.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 2:It's a key moment because sometimes, whether it be confidence, you're a personal trainer, you're a landscaper, you're outside the universe of even the administration of being an author, and a published author at that, but that meeting and your ability to kind of, like you know, take that meeting, linger in that moment.
Speaker 1:And connect with her in a way that she saw something in you and saw what you were capable of creating. That's it.
Speaker 2:I think we always associate like the two ships passing in the night to romance and relationships. But it can be business, it can be a book, it can be a person, it can be co-creation of sorts.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right. Yeah, ameliorate on that a little bit. That's incredible and so, and so let's do this, cause I want to come back and we'll tie this out with the exact thing going on this weekend and kind of where we go with that, just in. I mean, that's exactly what I wanted to get out of this. Was that part?
Speaker 2:I didn't know that part, and that's um, that's a fantastic story and I think now you sort of I'm glad we did it, just your passion for it, and it's like, it's funny, like I keep on thinking of this the book, the images, the movement itself. Then you go back to the landscaping. It's by design. There's design to all of this and that's a common theme in what you've got going on Stace. I'm going to get ready for this. Is this going to be a heavy one? Did you do our normal game or is this just random? No, usually we play a hold on. I'm going to get some mead. I'm going to drink some mead before this question.
Speaker 1:Enjoy that.
Speaker 2:It's a medieval wine Stace.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know we had that when we went to the Renaissance Festival. What was that?
Speaker 2:Is that it?
Speaker 1:That was it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Was that Colorado? Yeah, we were in Colorado. Before Ainsley moved to Brooklyn Question three.
Speaker 1:I'm ready, babe.
Speaker 2:I might even answer it first. Let's see.
Speaker 1:What do you wish you were better at saying no to Wow.
Speaker 2:Nope, you go first days.
Speaker 1:You're really good at that one. You don't need to practice that.
Speaker 3:Dipper.
Speaker 2:Do you have one?
Speaker 1:I think I would say Better at saying no to Saying no to projects at work. I I'm very much a people pleaser and I want to be accommodating and helpful. That's my nature.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But then my plate gets too full and it gets stressful. Yeah, and I have. I have people that I work with that I can delegate to.
Speaker 2:Mine is so superficial, but it's a little bit of, I think, with us. I'm so immersed in the writing, so immersed in the human connection part of it, that we do tend to. When we have a couple hours in the evenings, we do watch some shows. I need to say no to this bullshit content that I will watch, sometimes Like, like, even like. I think the other night I don't even know what happened, but I just turned it off in the middle and we sat there for like 45 minutes and I just looked at the window and it was so fulfilling.
Speaker 2:It was such a better use of 45 minutes with I think we had like a couple of the candles on and the sun was setting and it was just like, no, not that right now, and I just need to. I think I see I need to find a better pathway. There's a very specific answer to that question, but no to. I need to say no to some TV shows that we use to unwind a little bit, that I know from the first minute I watched it aren't going to meet this standard, but now I'm going to, I'm going to give them the grace of my time for 10 horrible episodes. Yes.
Speaker 1:We don't need that.
Speaker 2:So I need to say no to that and just watch more sunsets and listen to music or something like that.
Speaker 3:I like that. I like that too. What's yours, brother? I'm going to say no to non intentionality.
Speaker 2:Ooh.
Speaker 3:Ooh.
Speaker 2:Because because in 2023,.
Speaker 3:I was asked this question at a coffee shop called the Hole on the East River in New York City.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I was asked you know what is your word for 2024? And I was like in my head I'm thinking in a split second, well, I don't have a word. Yeah, like you know. And then another split second, that word intentional came in yeah, and it changed my life.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:And so when I think about that question, which is a great question, it's like, okay, what is it? You know, because there's things that come my way. And this guy that I met in New York city, he said things are going to come your way. You've got to say no to, because you can't say yes to everything. Right. But then when I've, when I've learned what being intentional is right, then you learn like there's no room for procrastination. Wow. And then my brother, who is a pastor, he said well, I'm an intentional procrastinator.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. He's committed to it. It's an art form for him.
Speaker 2:I like that a lot. It's an art form for him. I like that a lot. Let's do the. We'll do the final circle around here and get right to you know, we're on May 15th, I think today, rolling into the weekend, right Is that the right date I think it is. That's correct. I think we had a sense of it, and let's just talk about exactly what's going on this weekend.
Speaker 3:It's amazing, man. You know, I sat a year ago at this time in New York city at a different, at several events over a period of several months, and as I was sitting in these dinners, vip dinners and whatnot, I was sitting there thinking to myself you know what I can do this, like I should be doing this, and here it is, a year later and I'm doing it, and just stepping out stepping out on a limb on my own, not, uh, you know I've done fundraising events and raise money for the orphanage that lived in Mexico and you know different things like that, but this is, this is something, that's all.
Speaker 3:everything that's happened over the last two years is all new. Every every action is something new which is really fun, Right, Um and but it's, you know it's a ton of work, but impact. Santa Cruz today is happening this Sunday, May 18th, from nine to noon at the mall, which is the Santa Cruz art and history museum, and it's a wellness event.
Speaker 3:You know this is wellness, mental awareness month and what a better time to have it, and I've got five speakers coming in plus myself. I have local personal trainer, seven time trainer of the year, karina Reed, who does a lot of her training at Total Fitness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's like, she's one, she wins, like those good times awards and things like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and she has a phenomenal story on mental health and she's shredded, and she's shredded, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so.
Speaker 3:Who else? Who are the other speakers? So we have Jillian Rydell. She is an ER on a helicopter in.
Speaker 3:Sacramento Very cool Rosie Ballard. She's a personal trainer. It's in Visalia. She's also a TEDx speaker. She does personal training on TV in our local station. We have Aaron Wexler from Santa Monica local station. We have Aaron Wexler from Santa Monica. Aaron is a musician, he's an artist, he's also an author. He's a personal trainer in volleyball. We have Colette Brown with Wellness by Colette, which is a granola. She started her own granola company almost the same time. I mean, we're kind of like side by side in this, and so she is coming to share about nutrition.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:And so she'll have her product there Wellness by Colette. She's absolutely amazing. Karina Reed, who we just talked about, is going to share her story. My buddy, dan Skoka, who is with me on Dual Coast Podcast that we do every Tuesday. He's flying in from New York with his girlfriend and they're going to be here. We're going to do a live interview with Karina. Uh, cause she doesn't? She gets nervous and sweaty. I love it, and so she's like I can't do that and I said I got the perfect.
Speaker 2:I've got the perfect solution that is so smart.
Speaker 3:And so we're. We're going to be on stage with her. That's just so brilliant.
Speaker 2:And you get the content, you get them in a happy space and it's just very similar to what we just did and this is easy.
Speaker 2:There's nothing to this, and I think that's why I love this platform. I think, if you've got it dialed in and there's nothing to, we just did one hour and there's not much to it. But yeah, I think it's. You know, I see it as you know, the first of many of these I think it becomes like I think there's some gravity to that idea. I think the speakers you have are dynamic. I'm interested even hearing their story a little bit. Yes, you know, and I think you've done a good job, kind of identifying some different little spokes in the wheel. As far as with the overall conversation, is there eventually? Is it all just? This is just kind of in the high weeds. Is it class to class to class over? Is there going to be like a kind of panel discussion on any level, or is it just these speakers and then a little kind of mixer or anything like that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, good question. So it's best, if people are listening to this, to get there around 8.30 am and there'll be about six or seven vendors that are going to be there, some with apparel, some with you, you know, kind of the uh, the angels and the tarots and stuff like that. There's um, potentially an e-bike company. There's also myself with move today, three, six, five, dual coast will be there. Uh, there'll be two other authors who are going to be there to have their books. My publisher will be there. She's one of the speakers, indiana Rivera.
Speaker 3:She's going to lead us off and she'll have a bunch of her books that she has published with different authors that are going to be there. So a wide variety of things that are there. So you get there, you get to mingle around, hang out.
Speaker 3:We start at nine and then we're going to have three speakers, boom, boom, boom, and then we have a break. So you get a little break, a little interaction, check out the vendors, that kind of thing. Then we Then we come back, we have a speaker, we do the dual coast podcast, and then two more speakers and we're done Amazing. And then we wrap it up with, just you know, the place Ma opens up at noon, noon-ish, and then but you know, people aren't forced to leave, they can hang out, we can talk, they can buy books, they can buy apparel.
Speaker 3:In addition to that, I have two books that are coming out this Sunday as well. You do, I do. What do you have? I have Unplugged, which is disconnecting from your devices.
Speaker 2:And shitty TV shows.
Speaker 3:Bingo.
Speaker 2:I can swear on my, it's my show. I can swear it's my resolutions and Brian's answer. Three Unplugged, yes, and what's the other one? So?
Speaker 3:it's a. It's basically the why of why we need to do it. It's not. It's not a kid's book, but it is kid-oriented because a lot of the ideas in here it's a reading book. It's just a small paperback, but the idea is why we need to get out there, because we animated it in the first series, right, it's picturesque. Oh, here's mom and dad playing. Here we're rolling down the hill together with mom you know, with our family and we're playing at the beach.
Speaker 3:we're building sand calls. This is the why you need to do it.
Speaker 3:Right, right, and so it's unplugged, and so the picture of the book is a family walking to the forest Stacey, you'll love that Walking to the forest and leaving the devices behind. That's amazing. So that's unplugged. The other one is called Imagine If, and I'm super excited about this book because it has well, number one. It doesn't have anything to do with movement, it has to do with self-awareness, and there are a hundred statements in there, and it came as a result. As I was on a bike ride in Southern California, huntington Beach, visiting my son, it was 7 am on a Saturday and I was riding on the path down there. I turned down this path.
Speaker 2:They have these black rubber mats that go towards the ocean because their beaches are so wide.
Speaker 3:So I rode down one. It's seven in the morning, it's all gray, it's all foggy, quiet, peaceful, standing down there for about five to 10 minutes. I turn around and I met with a family of just a mother and three kids, all under the age of about eight, and so I rode past them. But I noticed they all had bags in their hands. So out of curiosity I stopped, spun around to see what they were doing. And mom had them out there on a Saturday morning at 7 am picking up garbage on the beach. I went back to the hotel after I rode the bike and I just got out the little note paper and I wrote imagine if we as parents exemplified to our children that we said let's do some community service. That idea of imagine if I took a picture of that, of that and it's in the book that math that goes to the grade.
Speaker 2:Model it.
Speaker 3:Modeling. That's it, yeah, and so it's a self-awareness book, a hundred statements to get you to think and to marinate on these ideas that imagine if every day and that's how the left page is Imagine if every day we showed kindness to one another. Imagine if every day we dress for success. Imagine if every day we saw someone in need and gave them a hug. Simple tenets, simple ideas 100.
Speaker 3:It's not just reading through the book and there's a place, there's a QR at the back where they can go to the QR. It takes them just reading through the book and there's a. There's a place there's a QR at the back where you know they can go to the QR. It takes them to a specific page on my website at move today, three, six, fivecom, and on there you can vlog and you could leave your own little journal in there Entry of what really resonated with you with the book.
Speaker 2:I love it that everybody.
Speaker 3:You know that we can go around and and talk about.
Speaker 2:Is there any chance, um between the beach and the hotel room, that you were exposed to extreme heat before you had that great idea? Is there any chance that you were possibly in 195 degree heat and had?
Speaker 2:a vision quest, that's right. Stace, a vision quest. Well, this has been incredible. Um, I think we're wrapping it up, we're right over there and I think we got it in. We'll drop it in the show notes. And the other thing we'll do from a vibe standpoint is um, like we talked about, we'll we'll cover it. Sunday station. I'll roll down there, um, we'll be at the event and then we'll give it some love. So it has some legs after the event. Sometimes that's that's better than what we'll do right here. Hundreds of the people that may hear it before they go. But I know it vibes between a little social media like post over the weekend and then a newsletter article next week kind of recapping the event. We can get some quotes from some of those speakers and make a little something of it, so that we've just found that that's kind of a way to kind of extend the life of an event like that.
Speaker 3:But this has been amazing dude. Thank you, this was a really good conversation.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it. Stacey, want to ameliorate anything?
Speaker 1:No, I just want to say that you're really inspiring. There's so much positivity coming from you, and the creation of your books is sort of like your way of giving back to the world the joy that you found. It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Stacey.
Speaker 2:That's outrageous. I've been around for 34 years and she's never said I'm inspiring. Thanks, guys, familiarity.
