canceled schools

We are welcoming in a “new day”...at night. ANYWAY. We’re forecasted for a lot of snow (and ice). Collin traveled to give a talk and found out people like him. Ugh. We discuss giving talks and presentations. Collin gives his review of the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid (tldr; he loves it). Aaron is busy playing World of Warhammer III. Plus, Brandon tells us we should have a reason for doing things. 

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, talk, weird, chrysler, person, kids, read, industry, nice, driving, feel, literally, field, new braunfels, slides, good, bit, lady, put, megan

SPEAKERS

Collin, Aaron, Brandon


00:04

Welcome to Oh, brother, podcast with three brothers trying to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon Cullen and Aaron, on this week's show canceled schools.


00:19

A hooray. A new day. Is that's true, but okay.


00:28

Day at the end of that day,


00:30

as we say, it's, it's at this point listeners,


Brandon  00:34

just so you know, it's 730 In the evening, so the fact that this is a new day, slightly misleading unless you're listening to this first thing Monday morning, then Good morning, and welcome to a wonderful new day. And there we go. BLAM BLAM.


01:01

Oh, there he is. There's our boy,


Brandon  01:04

Erin. Hello. I am here somewhere. Yeah. Are you forecast to get 7000 inches of ice as well? Or no, we're, we're already virtual tomorrow. So ah, there we go. Hey, they went


Aaron  01:25

ahead and told us like, yeah, just just go ahead and get online. And sweet. So yes, it is projected to delete and I look crazy. Tomorrow like midday? Yeah, as to a lot of stuff planned. And, like early morning, bullpen work. And a lot of the kids like we're not gonna have school tomorrow. And I was like, guys, that's ridiculous. And then I get an email. And then they come over the intercom. I'm like, oh,


01:56

oh, coming over the intercom is a bit strong. That's a bit much.


Brandon  01:59

Oh, my school is really bad at communicating. And I didn't know, we didn't have school last time.


Aaron  02:08

Until one of my players put in the group chat. And then then I look onto our little annoying app thing. And it's like, Oh, hey, by the way, we're looking at school tomorrow. So a little


Brandon  02:23

busy. Yeah, that's a good reason to be annoyed, not knowing. We don't We haven't gotten any official word. Yes. About that. But we are like, we have that lab where I talked about before. So I'm not going to rehash that. But we have those like packet things to work on. We've made a bunch of packet things to work on. So if they're out so the email I got said, Hey, make sure that they have them for the next three days, just in case. Oh, no. So like, I was like, Hey, guys, remember to download that. If you haven't, I'm going to send them out one at a time. But if you don't have any house, download it now. Right? Okay, go like. And some of them did was like just in case they said, it will be one a day. Three days. Maybe? Who knows? Who knows we need all of them. But be prepared for the possibility that maybe so yeah, I read the the custodian guy that does the my room today. He's pretty hilarious. I like him. I talk to him all the time. His son used to go there, right. And so like he knows Susan and everything there. He knows her fur. He's known her for forever. So he comes by everyone talks all the time. Oh, what's up? And so he saw me there. Yeah, I saw on the on the News at Noon. That south of Harrison Arkansas is forecasted to get one inch of ice.


03:56

Oh, oh, boy. Yeah,


Brandon  03:59

that's what I said. I said, Oh, no. That's terrible. Oh, yeah. Wow. So I could saw looking not great for tomorrow, saying, Yeah, I was like, no, no, no, no. He was like, we're 4k. I can't remember what he said. It's like, we're forecasting it somewhere between like, a 10th. And like, a quarter inch or whatever. And I was like, that's fine. Yeah, that's okay. We don't need anything more than a quarter because then power starts going out. And, like quarter is starting to push it. Right. That's starting to get a little bit heavy on the old power lines. No, I can't imagine. Ah, goodness gracious. That is yeah, you will have power forever.


Collin  04:59

I can't even madman? No? Like I did. That's awful.


Brandon  05:04

I literally I don't want that. We're supposed to get much asleep, which is not really better. So it keeps going between like sleet, snow, sleet weed out like that's what the forecast he's mad seem to between, like sleeps not really great because that can freeze, you know?


Collin  05:21

Well because overnight temperatures tomorrow are not supposed to be favorable


Brandon  05:25

due to daytime temperatures tomorrow are going to be 23 degrees. So I totally like not that. Like no temperatures are going to be favorable night. It's only 20 right now. So like


05:43

it's not looking great. Ah


Brandon  05:48

yeah. Hi, tomorrow 23. For reference listeners to high Monday today is what is today? Tuesday. Right? Say Tuesday? Yes, it is Tuesday. It's It's Super Tuesday. Of course. That's why I want my bow tie to work today. What a dork. yesterday. It was 68 degrees outside. Today, it was like not


Collin  06:18

exactly. It


Brandon  06:19

was it didn't get as warm as they thought it was going to today by a lot by quite a bit, like 15 degrees or more


Collin  06:29

amount. I was I woke up this morning and I was like, Oh, it like this morning. It was still saying like we're gonna read a 60


Brandon  06:37

I was like, sweet. Oh, now we only got like 40 something. Oh,


Collin  06:43

we got to 22


Brandon  06:47

I mean, we got to when I when I say 40 Like that was like this morning. Yeah. And it just went down from


Collin  06:54

there. Oh, yeah. No, no, yeah,


Brandon  06:56

I was just like, this is this is really bad. Yeah, it was a little it's a little chilly. So that doesn't look good for icing situation. So Oh, hope we get that.


Collin  07:07

We're supposed to not have any of that. But except for it starts


Brandon  07:18

tomorrow night into Thursday. That's the worst. It's forecasted here to start at like 10. So like, well, I don't know what heat. Nobody's talked about school yet. Because like, it's supposed to be such a weird time. But what I really hate and what has happened before and it's literally the worst thing ever because we get to school. And it starts like sleeting and icing like crazy. And they're like, Oh, snap. We got to go home now. Like but


Collin  07:47

yeah. Nobody will be in that position.


Brandon  07:50

Yeah, cuz then you have to like emergency feed the kids. And right before you send them home, right? Because we have to we can't just like by get out like we have to give them all lunch. Yeah, otherwise, basically, it doesn't even count as the actual day of school. Right? Like, we have to do that. So we'll see. I don't know the timings gonna be really terrible tomorrow. So it's gonna be mystery about what happens. In Sorry, I got my test done today. So it's fine if we did our quiz today. Kovalam so that timing worked out finally. That was good.


08:32

Got that all taken care of. So


Brandon  08:36

whatever we need to start, we can start it whenever it's fine. Yeah,


Collin  08:50

we ran away last week. But while it was a blizzarding and then I was like, Well, looks like we get to still experience it. Or re see it didn't


Brandon  09:01

want you to miss out. It was like oh, man, calling miss out on other coldness. Let's bring it back.


Collin  09:10

Thanks a lot. So sorry.


Brandon  09:15

It's all good. I want to know, listeners con went to a petsitter convention where he apparently is famous. I want to know your reaction to the first time too. I want to know what your face look like when someone came up and asked you if they could take a picture with you.


Collin  09:33

mortify. absolutely mortified. I, I mean, yeah, so listeners. My wife and I are pet sitters we may have talked about, okay, oh, only like 700,000 times. We also have a podcast for pet sitters. And it is It is mildly famous in the petsitting world, apparently, is very, very, yeah, people really like it. So, um, we went to that same conference and ended up with people asking us to take pictures, which was terrifying. And they came up to us and they were like we walked in. And this is the other weird back is that I have been friends with a good chunk of these people for like two to three years on Facebook. And so all of a sudden, like little Facebook icons were becoming people. So that was another thing. But it really freaked me out when I walked in. And I didn't even introduce myself to the check in. They just said, Oh, hi, Collin. Hi, Megan. Here are your badges that yo. Oh, no.


Brandon  10:55

Bam, God, I'm looking at that.


Collin  10:59

And then, yeah, no, the first time someone came up, she's younger lady, and very new to petsitting. And from California, and came up and she said, Oh, my gosh, I can't believe you guys.


Brandon  11:18

Every day, she was like, okay, that air we gotta step our game up over here. We got to make Cullen uncomfortable on two podcasts.


Collin  11:26

And she was like, Can I take a picture? And we were like, Oh, my gosh, sure. And then her friend stepped over. And she's like, oh, yeah, you too. So like, with it was like back to back photos with these people. And then people, people kept coming up to us and saying, like, thank you so much for doing podcasts. And I feel like, I know you guys so much. And you have no idea who I am. And I'm like, that is true. I don't even know your name. I'm sorry. Who are you? So that was also really weird. Because people have been literally listening to us for like, three years. Right? That's true. And they know us. Or at least, the podcast. And so yeah, that was that was so wild. I ya know, and people were just like, so I tried to deflect quite a lot of a lot of deflection. And obviously, focusing on focusing on trying to focus on them and have them tell me their story. And one of the one of the people we talked to,


Brandon  12:33

yes, it's like you already know mine, because you listen, oh,


Collin  12:36

I wanted to just like, let me talk to you about you. And one of the ladies basically was like, I find it so helpful when you ask questions, because I try and figure out how I would answer them. And I was like, Wow, that's amazing. Next Level


12:53

is awesome. Yeah. She


Collin  12:55

was like, when you ask your when you ask for the interview, and you ask questions, like, I try and really think about how I would do that. And I write it all down, do all this stuff. I was just like,


Brandon  13:05

oh, okay, I need that lady to talk to my sixth graders a little bit. Because like, we need to get to that level. That's what we're at right now. That's what, uh,


Collin  13:16

so it was really nice. And people kept coming up. And they're like, so how to, how to like, how do you how do you get interviewed for your podcast? And I was like, you ask? They're like, Oh, really? And I was like, yeah, yeah,


Brandon  13:31

there's a list. But like, any like,


Collin  13:34

yeah, there's like, tweet, send me an email.


Brandon  13:38

There's a big list, but like, you know, it's not like sequential order, you know, just seriously, like, Oh, come


Collin  13:45

on, come on, like, whatever. So it was, that was weird.


Brandon  13:50

And, yeah,


Collin  13:52

I mean, yeah, no, it was it was it was a whirlwind. I gave a talk. My talk was on imposter syndrome. And oh, yeah, you're welcome, by the way. Yeah. Yeah, it's good stuff. Imposter syndrome and value about like, self worth and self value. And it was, I'm really proud of the talk. I'm really, it needs to be talked more about in the industry, specifically,


Brandon  14:22

I think, in any industry that is a subject that is important to discuss, right, like, well, and I am gonna say, I think it's important for non traditional industries or service industries, especially industries, non career path industries. My big point, my big takeaway was like, every single one of us came from somewhere else, right? Like, we are all outsiders with our own backgrounds that are now here. And that's what leads to a lot of these feelings of being alone, and is one of the missions of the podcast. is to help get rid of that has helped cut through that. And talked about self worth a lot during the talk. And I did you know, I know people really struggle with that. And it can lead to some serious


Collin  15:14

people struggle with mental health and feeling that and feeling hurt. So, you know, I did, I did give out the crisis hotline, phone number. And I want people to have that resource of like, look, here's, here's some ways that we can address this. But if you really need to talk somebody like, not you, maybe not you go ahead and write this number down for your friend, not you, obviously, but for your friends. Right, like, trying to help them give them like, here's your permission to write it down. So you don't feel singled out. This is for your print. And, and afterwards. And the only other big thing in the industry is that I've had this passion about this, but there are the people who are just starting out and they're on apps, like I don't know, if you've heard of rover and wag, or others listing services, those people are looked down on like, they're scum of the earth, by many, quote unquote, independent pet care professional businesses. And it really makes me angry, like, genuinely. And so we I talked about, like, how to, like stop comparing yourself with like, confidence over credentials, competence, over credentials, and like, kind of pushing back on a lot of these things that people do to try and puff themselves up or make them feel better. And they compare themselves to other people on based on all this stuff. And basically being like, we all started somewhere. 20 years ago, somebody started out, obviously, they weren't on rover and wag they were on in the newspaper. Now that's just where people start. And we as an industry have to be willing to accept them and bring them into the fold and reach out to them. Because like talk, oh, sorry, go ahead. No, you're fine. Would you say?


Brandon  17:04

No, I'm just saying like, you know, that's really it's really strange that there's still that like pushback, because I mean, not strange, I guess because I think that, that online, kind of like, the, like the gig culture, right? Because like, if you are like a graphic designer, that's where you live in that space, right? You part of your job, or part of your income comes from like freelancing through online services, you know, like, Okay, I list myself here, for I can do this service for you. And like, that's where people find you. And so that is a reality. I think, even though that's like a really big thing. I think a lot of people still just like, don't get it.


Collin  17:49

Oh, you know, like, downhill look down on it. And they basically say, it's weird,


Brandon  17:53

though, cuz like, if you're, let's say, you're like, oh, you know, he just needed like, a side gig is like a proofreader. You're on one of these services.


18:02

Like, why is that? Oh, I know, it's not


Brandon  18:05

bad. Like it, that's cool that you can, you know, bring yourself out and bring your talents and skills to new people that need your help, right? Like, you get hooked up with people that way. Like, it just confuses me, because that's the culture that we live in now. That like, that's like, the internet is a thing, guys. Like, I don't know where to begin. But like, it's not like AOL anymore. You know, it's not just chat rooms and stupid forums. Like, I mean, they're still forums, but like, there's more, you know, and it's like, the pushback that certain industries have against like, the online culture. Is it too weird to me? Like, I don't get it. And I'm not even a person that's like, online in that space. But like, I get that that's an important thing in a good place. To have services Well, right. Where's anything?


Collin  19:00

Well, you know, a couple things like a, it's when people are like, let me just test the waters. They sign up for one of these apps. And they go, let's see, when they are looking for an opportunity to earn a little bit of extra money. They sign up on these app, because it's gig. And that yeah, that's what that's what independent professionals who are in this I mean, I asked everybody I said, before I even started my talk, I said, Hey, by show of hands, who's been in this industry, almost 30 years, and a quarter or more of the room, raise their hand. And then I said, who started your business when the last five and only like two or three hands went up. And I think it's also important to note interesting, what crowd you're listening to old people, old people go to conferences, just be very real.


Brandon  19:49

I mean, yeah, plus,


19:50

I think conference. I'm an old person now and I hate conferences. Well, they're terrible. I'll say this. Plus


Collin  19:55

they have an established business where they can leave and go to call true. You Yes,


Brandon  20:00

I didn't think about that. People that are like just starting out don't have the ability to,


Collin  20:05

they don't have the income, they don't have revenue, they don't have the


20:08

flexibility. Like they don't have the flexibility. They can't afford to leave. Exactly.


Collin  20:13

So anytime. So that's it's important to note of like, anytime you're listening to somebody or a group of people, you have to understand their background, where they're coming from, and why the majority of voices there are there. And so that's part of the thing that I push back on is you have these people who've been in the industry for 30 years. And they go, Well, I'm, I do all these things. And you're like, Yeah, this person just started out yesterday. They're not doing your fix. Yeah. Come on, not in and people are coming into the into the industry by drove through these apps. And instead of being there, going, Hey, welcome. Here's some stuff to learn. And I'd be loving, I'd love to mentor you. They basically just trash talk down to them and say, You're doing it wrong. You you you are not as good as we are. And you are trashing our name. And I'm like, Wow, no wonder they don't come and talk to you. And wonder, do you think


Brandon  21:09

it's because they're just it's like a fear of competition thing? Oh, 100%? Partly?


Collin  21:15

It is right? It is. And I mean, like, one lady actually said, she feels like when rover and wag started 10 years ago, it cheapened


21:23

the pet care industry.


Collin  21:26

And because it made it something like quote, unquote, everybody can do now, anybody can sign up? I think anybody can. Anybody can. And that's the thing that Megan and I are constantly like, like, you could go out and anybody, literally anybody can start this, it takes exactly $0. Exactly. And no training to do any of this.


Brandon  21:46

And the weird part is, I mean, a weird part from my outsider perspective. Right? The weird thing about this, to me as a person on the outside is that you're like, hyper competitive, and like really obsessive about an industry that a huge chunk of people don't even know exists. No, right. Like, the fact that I bet if he pulled the room of like, 100 people that were like, Hey, did you know that you can hire a person to come to your house and watch your dog? They'd be like, what?


Collin  22:18

Yeah, no hire person training and education. It with insurance? That's bonded step. Yeah. No,


Brandon  22:25

yeah. Like, you can hire up like a professional person to come and take care of your pet. When you're out of town. They'd be like, really? Yeah. No, I didn't know that. So like the fact that them as, as these websites, bring awareness, yes. to consumers, that are like, Yo, I can, that's a thing I can do. Like the market share is only growing. So the fact that more people are getting involved in it is not really a detriment to you at all. Because the as more people are coming into the market, the market itself is only skyrocketing. Because if people don't even know it's a thing that you can do.


Collin  23:09

Yeah, the problem that they will point to is they will go well, these new people app charge $11 for a visit, and I have to charge, you know, $30 to make ends meet and pay stuff. I'm like, Yeah, okay. Yeah, I don't know. But


Brandon  23:27

like, if you have like a client list already, like, it's not like, if you have, like, let's say, I'm booked you to set my pet, like regularly, right? We have like a thing going, right? Once that relation, like in an industry like this, like a service industry, and it's just the people that like really care about their pets. I'm not gonna be like, oh, man, that person cost me like a little bit less money, I should just dump this person and go use them. Right? It's like, Nah, it's because the person is charging, like 11 bucks is the person that's like, already working like two jobs. And this is just like a random thing they're doing every once in a while. And they're probably not going to be that reliable. And they'll slowly realize that they have to raise their prices, if they really get more competitive and like, take it more seriously. So like, it's not a worry, because the market will weed that out.


Collin  24:21

Well, and that's, yeah, well, that's where also some of this partnering and mentoring comes in of like, what he studies economics data, right? Like, we're just like, hate instead of complaining about it. Why don't you reach out to that person and explain to them that they could charge more, and how and how you could do that XYZ, these things, build them up, lift them up, educate what


Brandon  24:42

and that comes with the self value part. Because if you're like undervaluing yourself, you're also going to undervalue your service. Yeah, yeah. Right. Because you think, Oh, I'm not worth that much. I can't charge that much. Except for No, you can because you are valuable. Your time is valuable. So you should be able to charge more for your time. Right? Like, that's the thing like, Yeah,


Collin  25:05

well, and, and we started. And so we, I kind of walked through a lot of that. And then also I just kind of like, for a few minutes, I just stripped away all of the of everything else and and was just like, look, I don't know. And I, I feel like this because I see this all the time on Facebook, especially with younger people entering the industry, what they really struggle with who they are. And they try and add things to themselves that maybe they don't want to, but they think it's gonna be important. And so I did take a moment where I was just like, look, I don't, I don't know, if you've ever been told this, or maybe it's been a while. But like, you are valuable. You are important and you're needed. Not. Your services are valuable, not your dog walking is important. Not your business is needed, like you like you as a person. And that's really hard to accept of like, yeah, I need to be okay with me, before I start adding other things, because we add things because it thinks if we make it, it makes it feel like we need to because we need to be more valuable. But I am is a complete sentence.


Brandon  26:14

I don't need to answer.


Collin  26:16

That was the title of my talk. Actually. I am


Brandon  26:19

nice. Again, that Decart reference man we're hearing we got to charge him for this is good stuff. But like, like, just put a put it put us into your credits and your like notes be like, oh, yeah,


Collin  26:33

like, I am like it's completed, you don't need to add anything else to it. It doesn't make you any more or less like, because a lot because in the middle of pandemic, another thing this talk is, there's so much more to this, but it was also born out of the middle of the pandemic. Over the course of 72 hours, pet sitters stopped being pet sitters, dog walkers stopped walking dog. And we had built on a lot of our identity in the doing instead of the being. And yeah, we stopped seeing value in ourselves. And so I asked everybody that question. I said, in the middle of the pandemic, when your business was shut down in your third month, were you any less valuable as a person? Did you mean anything less? The people in your life? No, right?


Brandon  27:20

The answer's no. Yeah, that's me. No.


Collin  27:23

But it sure didn't feel like it. Right? Like it's yeah,


Brandon  27:25

no, no, no, no, it's


Collin  27:27

because society has taught us to confuse I am with I do. And yeah, to put the fork put the ladder of higher importance over the fork. Yes. And, man, that really, when you start really like drilling down into that, you start figuring out, like, what are my motivations behind a lot of my actions. And so we talked through, like, you know, some of my personal examples of like, anytime something comes up in your life, ask, Why did you do that? And more importantly, what does that mean about? What does that tell me? About myself? Like, Collin didn't respond to an email for five months? Why? He didn't want to tell the person no. What does that tell me about me? Yeah, I write. I'm a people pleaser, and don't like make people sad. So I just deleted the email. So they've ever responded.


Brandon  28:25

Right? Like, I mean, yeah, there you go.


Collin  28:28

Um, anyway, after the talk, a lady did stand up. Younger lady, and she gave me this huge hug. And she was crying. And she said, I needed to hear that so much. Thank you. Obviously, I started crying. That was good, clearly. But no, I got a good reception, and very thankful for that opportunity. So we'll see. I had one lady. Yeah, another person come up to me and ask if I wanted to go and speak at another conference or something. So we'll see what


Brandon  29:07

they like. Yeah. We'll just add that to my to my leg, my LinkedIn thing, right. petsitter conference. Speaker one of the keynote speaker right. They go,


Collin  29:20

right. No, it was also a weird because I was weird position. Because the I was the second talk of the day. And the first talk was by a veterinarian about Chagas disease. Oh,


Brandon  29:36

that's a tonal shift


Collin  29:37

to the right after me with a lady talking about like, how to use Instagram.


Brandon  29:45

Like, important medical information, heavy topic. Fun marketing. Yeah. Exactly. I ain't guys. Yeah, this getting the word out.


Collin  29:55

And it was really funny because they were like, oh, presenters, can you send us your your slides? Time, we're gonna print them out. We're gonna put them in a book.


Brandon  30:04

And I was like, I'm not, I'm not doing that. Because I don't put now my slides. Yeah, yeah, not at all. Like seriously, like, I have had had 14 slides, and it took me an hour to present in, there were no words, type words. This is this is how presentations are supposed to work, people are supposed to take a take a thing, right? This is how it goes. You don't want to read off of your slides to your audience, your audience is smart enough


Collin  30:37

to read your slides, name any names there. But they're literally every


Brandon  30:41

school presentation I've ever been in every building administrator I've ever met, does not believe that I am intelligent enough to read what they put now sometimes, I can't read it because they failed. They would fail my class in presenting because they'll put like some stupid background and then like a weird color. And you're like squinting at the screen going, I cannot read that. What are you doing? There, they made their font like teal. And then like, a green background? You're going? Why? Why do you get an F in my class for presenting? Why you I would mark you down on my rubric for that.


Collin  31:20

Say they should tell us to estimate the oldest person in the room and make the font that that size.


Brandon  31:29

And I tell my kids like high contrast font. Right? I talked about Yeah. We talked about like how you can highlight the background. So you can make it stand out from your picture. Yeah, we need to make it readable. Right? This is these are the these are the secondary skills that we're teaching in class here. This


Collin  31:45

is this is important stuff, all very important. But what I do most of the time is I go to like, I now go to photo sites like one, one of them I like is called Unsplash. And one is called up pixel, pixel, whatever. Their something Oh, right. Yeah. Free photos without having to actually I just searched, afraid of like, like, one of the things I searched was medical, right? Because I want the photo to evoke an emotion. Yeah, a topic that I'm covering on that slide. Yeah. And that's how I put my slide together, what would evoke an emotion of kind of like the general point of this segment of Talk? And that's what I want to have up there. Yeah, why?


Brandon  32:35

It's my notes in class. Do that too, sometimes, right? It's not like, like my notes, like when we take notes, and we're like, doing our little lecture time or whatever. It's like, I just, I'll have slides like my slideshow things. They're like, a billion slides long. But that's because a lot of them are like, pictures. You know, we'll write down a little bit and there'll be pictures. There'll be stuff, right, like, they'll talk about things. And we just like flip through and like, Yeah, I agree the same way. It's like, it's very rare because we don't want to, and I mean, cuz I'm teaching so it's tangentially related, right? Like, the information that I need you to have is not necessarily coming from the slide right through for me. That's why I'm here. Yeah. So like, notes in class. I'm like, Oh, here's the important thing, write this down. And then we're just gonna, like, talk about what this means. Exactly. Exactly. Now,


Collin  33:30

I'm not going to say any names here. Um, there was one presenter, who is like, They're well known. And read word for word. The install all of them, even though sometimes the fly would just have like three words. No, would read all of them and would not do any elaboration and just read through them in time. It is so painful, and a waste of my time.


Brandon  34:04

Oh my gosh.


Collin  34:06

I Yeah, it was really hard for me to do that. But anyway, conferences fine. Are you still there? Yeah, okay, sorry. Yeah, conference fine. New Braunfels. Very interesting town. We stayed in the House Hotel, which is very old hotel that apparently is haunted.


Brandon  34:31

As I say with a name like Faust, I'd be a little like, oh, wait, hold on.


Collin  34:38

Yes, they it was apparently from the 1920. Oh is opened up in 1929. Is when they found it started. And they still have the original


Brandon  34:50

cash register. Sitting at the front desk. That's crazy.


Collin  34:55

When I say sitting I mean taking up the entirety of the front being the counters. Oh, but no, it was very interesting. Enjoyed New Braunfels? A bit very long drive. Yeah, it was easier.


Brandon  35:16

European viewers. It's about three countries away. When we put it to scale from college house to the middle of Texas. Yeah, well, it's about three countries


Collin  35:28

away. Go to College Station. First we had to drive. Oh, yeah, true. Basically, you have to go to Dallas in the cop station, and then over to New Braunfels. So, all told it was 17 it was 1000 701,770 miles round trip. Yeah, it was good. But it was much easier as we drove a van drove a 2001 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid.


Brandon  35:59

Wow, there we go. A Pacifica makes a return the lives of the Funkhouser ORS look at their


Collin  36:05

does indeed. This thing was so I was I. Okay. Very real.


Brandon  36:14

And I like to imagine that he was just like buying stuff. Like try to pack it in there like, Oh, can I fit? I can fit this in here. Oh.


Collin  36:24

I at first Megan was like, we're not renting the minivan. And I was like, Yes, we are per cargo space. Like it's literally the best buy. I I'm not buying this. I'm surprised you didn't


Brandon  36:37

go alright. Megan. Full Size van it is plan got a


Collin  36:42

Mercedes Sprinter. Yeah, lux. But this thing, like


Brandon  36:48

the kids used to the floor in the back and the great thing. Got it. Let's


Collin  36:51

go. It's little, like little things like most cars have USB connectors in the center on the back of the center console for the people in the backseat. Yeah. Chrysler puts those in the back of the seat in front of you.


Brandon  37:10

That's good job, Chrysler.


Collin  37:12

I know, because it's very helpful. It actually reaches.


Brandon  37:16

Yeah, you have to like lean awkwardly.


Collin  37:19

Yeah. So like, when we walk when we let the kids watch some stuff? No, I obviously chose Thomas the Tank Engine. The original. Clearly told Ringo? Yeah, with Rinko. Yeah, I have. Yeah, obviously. Fun fact, ladies and gentlemen, if you did not know, there's a television show called was shining time station, right? Yeah. With a magical tank and Train cartoon. And the little magical conductor is definitely Ringo Starr from The Beatles. Also, I


Brandon  37:49

think in one season, a couple seasons. It's also George Carlin, weirdly, which doesn't seem like a good fit George Carlin on a children's show, but it's surprisingly good.


Collin  37:59

Is no bueno. No. We watched those, which was good. And then Lilly. Lilly did watch Kiki's Delivery Service. Yeah, that a kid all of it. In Japanese with subtitles. All right. So she is like, way awesome. Now.


Brandon  38:20

I feel like we need another challenge coming on. We more Japanese challenge is coming on air and you think


Collin  38:25

about that. This thing over the course of the 17 of 1700 miles Average. Okay, this thing average almost 34 miles to the gallon. Yo, which is a lot. Okay, ma'am, for a van. And I didn't even have to I it's a plug in hybrid two. I didn't get chance to charge it those my one thing that I was like I really want to do. And Megan was like, we don't have time. Drive. And I was like, No, I want to charge it. It'd be fun. I want to plug in the car. But I was like I was seriously blown away by this thing. It was like driving a spaceship. There was like blue it was just I Yeah. I loved it. I really love this thing. A lot. Nice. Yeah. So yeah, trip made better by Dan. Do one thing, but it will say is Chrysler is all about the turn dial. Shift.


Brandon  39:33

ng thing. Yeah, no, our car has that and it's really kind of weird. I'm always like, super freaked out that I'm going to grab that instead of like the Bravia.


Collin  39:43

I hate this. I hate this with a burning passion. I never I never got used to it. I consistently messed up and there was one time where I had to do a quick like within an hour Turn around. And I don't know what I did. But I found myself half in a driveway, half of the middle of the road and the car put itself in a parking brake, just automatically.


Brandon  40:12

You probably you probably tried to flick it while it was still moving. And it like freaked out and went No.


Collin  40:21

I was I had to move quickly. And so it was just like, This is not good. This is the dial it cool. Ooh, magic, whatever. It's not it to me, it was just like, it takes so long to get used to this. That it actually impedes the driving. So I don't know. I mean, you guys had the car for a little over a couple years. This point like, Yeah, I'm sure it's second nature by now.


Brandon  40:47

Yeah, by now. Yeah. It's It's definitely different. If you were just like renting your car that has that. It is a feature that if you're at the beginning, like this is really odd. It like doesn't feel like tactically, as stable as like, moving a shifter to a thing.


Collin  41:07

But it were I


Brandon  41:08

know, like in the version of because I one of my friends used to have a car like ours. The version before with the it had the sticky thing in there. And like it was just in the way. It was like badly put in there. So I can see why they went to it's very space savy, right. Is


Collin  41:28

it also somebody like me who have like, obsessive thoughts, sometimes all I wanted to do was turn the dial while driving 75 pounds. That was some time. Only thing my brain could focus on was like, something in this thing looks like it spins. I'm going 80 miles an hour. What would happen if I just turned it? Will it turn? Well,


Brandon  41:50

I don't know. I've never tried it. Because for obvious reasons, because I don't want my transmission to end up on the highway. So I'm


Collin  42:00

Yeah, I didn't. I didn't either. But that was at some point.


Brandon  42:06

Yeah, I don't know. We'll do that.


Collin  42:09

But it drives super, like super quiet. Like going 90 through Dallas at a couple points to get around crap. And like, no problem. You


Brandon  42:17

mean totally driving the speed limit? 100% of the time? Oh,


Collin  42:21

yes. Yeah. Always limit? Yes. That's the other thing. It doesn't have a rev counter. Instead, it has power output by percentage. Oh, interesting.


Brandon  42:34

So your obsessive personality was also like 100%. Let's go. I never got to 100% which was Thank you. That's good safety for.


Collin  42:41

But there were a few times where I was like, Oh, we got to get up and go. And it like it seamlessly switches between, like, right now we have a Honda Accord Hybrid. And it does not seamlessly switch between battery and engine. Because it's also 2000. It's this older. Right, right. Yeah. It's really obvious. This thing, like, you could not tell when was running, except whenever you really punched it. And then you could hear the engine, but like, no vibrations. When you're going really low speed. You could or you could tell it was all electric because it just had that. I'm like that. Yeah, like that. He had that go your noise. Weird that weird hum. But otherwise, it was great. So I highly recommend Chrysler hybrid. Chrysler Pacifica hybrid.


Brandon  43:37

Yeah, I like our Sue. It's really nice. It's it's kind of a weird, like, Susan doesn't like it of the car. It's a Chrysler 200 Oh, by the way, I just remember what it's called. Like, because it's kind of like, she doesn't like that. She can't like the front's very round. So like the fact that she like can't see. Like, she has trouble like howling where the front end is sometimes sure that kinda like mess around. But oh, that it's really I like it a lot. It's really nice. Yeah,


Collin  44:10

no, I I mean, it was just like, I obviously would never actually want to own one a minivan that is but like,


Brandon  44:20

kind of the way to go if we know you're all full size Man Boy, it's okay.


44:23

Only both sides


Brandon  44:26

don't want anything any.


Collin  44:29

Yeah, it was just like, Okay, this is pretty cool. I like all the technology everything feels nice. But it only had it only had 9000 1000 miles on it when we first got it so nice. Oh basically brand new. That's cool. Anyway, that's uh, that review.


Brandon  44:53

Van review corner with Comedy Corner Denton. Yeah, but Stinger put in there. And yeah, that's all we've got going on.


Collin  45:04

Quite a lot. Back in the swing of things. That's to be fair. Yeah. No, I, like immediately had to take over all of the I had to give my wife staff a break today is he like, did not get a break of the past. So yeah, so it was like, don't do anything today stay home. I'll do it all. Yeah. Fair. Aaron, what have you been up to?


Brandon  45:33

Um, really a whole lot. This week, then this school baseball and softball game starts next week.


Aaron  45:43

Warhammer three finally came out, which I'm currently playing now. So I'm not gonna lie have been zoning out because I had been waiting for this game. Three years. And nothing is going to fire.


Brandon  45:55

You and Henry Cavill. Both I hear. So you're good to go, man. But other than that,


46:03

things are going really good. Really till we


Brandon  46:09

at least, except for whether pending by


Aaron  46:13

doing a lot of work. softball field wise, baseball field wise, doing a lot of things that kids are like, Oh, we never had to do this before. You're like, I don't really know. Yeah, we've never had like, through coaches. before. So we don't we didn't know what we are doing. Well, you are welcome. So it's been doing a lot of that. A lot of developmental stuff. A lot of things. And then. Yeah, kind of honestly about it. This Alicia has been really, really till last week was very chill was really nice. Like, a good chunk of the week. That was very, very unique and very rare for us. And then Yeah, yesterday was like, perfect. XPS and all these kind of things are like almost perfect. And then it's like and is fine. So it doesn't that NASA fall, oh, even doing really a whole heap of a lot and survive and stay warm. And it all began.


Brandon  47:19

Nice, nice now. What? What kind of things are they doing with the field that they never had to do any for just like upkeep stuff like actual field maintenance, like sweeping


Collin  47:34

the dugout, at


Aaron  47:36

you field maintenance is a really big thing. Our dirt is super soft. And so they're like, Yeah, we don't know what to do with it. Like, really, you guys have no idea what to do. And they're like, yeah, we've ever done before. And I was like, you know how to use the equipment, they're like now. Alright, so I literally show them how to, you know, drag the field properly. Show them, you know, proper level of knowing, which is weirdly complicated for some kids. And kind of like this than the other. So it's, it's a lot of like, utilizing the dirt that you have utilizing, you know, ways to turn it and so that way, it's not just like rock solid, so you don't like if you do fall on it. It's not like oh, and now I have rocks in the face, or things like that. So it's a little bit of everything.


Brandon  48:36

showing kids how to like make it not


Aaron  48:41

you know, just like, not disgusting, and how to move things around and actually have like, properly drag the fields. So little things like that. Yeah, we've never had a sport like, alright, like to feel good.


Brandon  48:59

It's a weird science to get behind and actually have to, like, teach kids how to do. Most of them have never had the wonderful ness of having


Aaron  49:14

Oh, hello, which is also a weird thing he doesn't know before. Like, yeah, we've never had to like, get on a tractor and like, oh, the field. Oh, you guys are missing out. So little things like that.


49:30

It is always


Brandon  49:32

a really weird, like realization when you discover things that people don't know how to do. Right? Yeah, it's one of the things like as a teacher I've very actively aware of like, Oh, you've never done this before. I can't. I can't assume that you know what I'm talking about. Even things like sending an email or like titling your presentation correctly. You don't mean? Like, there's all these like weird little things that you just do. And like, you would just assume that a child knows how to do them. Because you're like, oh, you know, kids get the RAT for like, oh, they know how to use electronics. Well, yeah. But do they know how to use them correctly? No. So like, we have to talk about the it's always it's always like, kind of surprising. And I'm always trying to be on the lookout for these things like, oh, I need to make sure I tell them how to do this or show them because like, I cannot assume that. They know what I'm talking about when I do that. I mean,


Aaron  50:41

yeah, there's a weird little concept that you're like, Oh, yeah. You guys know how to read a map? And they're like, oh, yeah, like the old technology stuff. Like, yeah, we don't. We don't we don't know what that means.


Brandon  50:54

Yeah, little things like that, that I take for granted. And oh, I literally can't teach that. That's right. Yeah, it says we'd like little things you have to do on the side. Like, it's very, it's very bizarre, like, Oh, you don't you don't know how to, like, for the first quarter of school, they would be like, Mr. Funkhouser, I don't know what to title this presentation.


51:18

And look at them, and be like, okay, so


Brandon  51:22

you're going to title a presentation about your dream vacation? What do you think a good title would be?


51:34

And they just stare blankly at me.


Brandon  51:37

And they'd be like, dream vacation? like, Ah, wonderful. They're just like, oh, like it took them a long time. So where's the last the last presentation? We did? I told them, I was very proud of them. Because we did the air pressure demonstration things. And like, they were all titled things like can crushing demo. Or like, you know, whatever the thing was, like balloon rocket demo. I was like, Guys, this is beautiful. So good. I've come a long way. I didn't even tell you. I didn't even tell them what to do. And they think it's the little things right? You wouldn't think that that's a big deal. But like, if you're going to create a presentation and then share it with somebody, you need to title it. Something that makes sense, right? Like, that's the joke of my class, we have to think like a scientist, what would a scientist name a presentation about an air pressure demonstration? They would just name it. Air pressure, demonstration. Boom, simple, easy. Go for it. Well, don't overthink this guys. Like, if you're gonna give it to me an email, and I'm gonna open it. I need to know exactly what it is. Right? Like, I need to know that. And so you just have to give me the information I need. Boom, that's it.


Collin  53:12

Yeah, I did. I did talk about that, actually, in my talk of, of, like, the expectations we placed on yourself of like, I should know this. This should be out. I run the business. I started doing this business. I should have all this figured out. I don't know. Like, like, like my brother says, when he's teaching kids like, Yeah, I know. You don't know this. That's why we're learning this together. That's what GLAMs is. Because, like, we all again, y'all, we all start somewhere. And it's okay that you don't know it. That's why we're, it's good that you're here. Because now we can work through this together. And that's really where that difference.


Brandon  53:56

Yeah, maybe they get it after a while. Right. I can feel. I feel like sometimes. Like, I feel weird, because I feel like I'm the first person that's told them that ever. Not 12 that. So that's a little bit stressful, right? Like, you know, like, you're hearing this for the first time when you're 12 years old. Okay, I know. It's like the middle school thing, right? So it's like, it's


54:27

different.


Brandon  54:28

And you know, a little bit but I do like, kind of go, oh, man, this we could be so much further along if other people were telling.


Collin  54:41

Well, you get reinforcement.


Brandon  54:43

Yeah. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, so? Yeah, it does, but we can't be worried about that. We got to worry about test scores and spreadsheets. Throw around


Collin  54:56

around around. Yeah,


Brandon  54:57

grumpy people, idiots. Anyway,


55:02

Yeah, that's,


Brandon  55:04

it is always interesting, like the little things that we don't know, we take for granted like the field thing, because like, you know, I wouldn't know how to do that, but I haven't played baseball in like, 20 some years. So like,


55:12

I have no idea what more than that 25 Probably. So like,


Brandon  55:17

that makes sense. You know, like, as somebody who's an active person is weird that, you know, used to be like, oh, yeah, we just do this to the field?


Aaron  55:26

Oh, no, it's just kind of one of the things by the sheer fact that no one has taken the time to show them. Like I was, I literally had to drag the tractor over. And, you know, kind of set it up. And I like gaggle of teenagers. They're like, what are you doing? Like? I mean, what do you mean, what am I doing? I was like, I'm kind of set this up and new, you know, do it this way. And so I go one way, and it's come across the other way. And they're like, why did you go that way? Like, yes, I noticed this, and they're like, no, no one's ever showed us, like, oh, well, and you know, kind of giving the giving of the point of like, you know, when, whenever you guys come out, it like, this is how you would need to do this. And this is how, you know, this is the reason behind that. You just do this. And that's, that's the end of it. There's more to it, than just like, oh, like, didn't you know how to do this? Yeah. People, like, I've never seen this kind of drag before. So trying to come up with those ways to have kids, you know, feel validated and be like, Look, you know, it's okay, but you don't know how to do this before. This is why we're taking the time now, you know, rectify what we have for you guys to learn one day, and so you can teach it whenever I feel like whenever I give it that visibility to it, like, oh, he, you know, he expects he has a great feel, whatever, I maybe become a coach or a teacher one day that like, you can like, oh, well, this, this coach showed me how to do this a long time ago. And so if I can give you that little perspective into it, the fact that they have they have ownership and what they're learning.


Brandon  57:12

Okay, but they just kind of take a little bit more to heart. So that's really good. I think, a lot of times to you sort of in education, specifically in this instance, but in in many other aspects, like even even the education, its columns doing for business stuff, like having


57:37

a reason,


Brandon  57:39

right behind what you're doing. Like, it just makes so much sense. Right? Like, I think about that, too, in the classroom, like, I, I always want to have an answer for that kid, that's going to be like, why are we doing this? Why don't need to know this? Right? Because I in my opinion, like, oh, because it's on the test or like, because the state says so is not an appropriate answer. Because a 12 year old does not care. I mean, let's be frank, I don't care about that. Right. So having having a legitimate reason. But behind like being intentional about it, and like saying, oh, yeah, well, this is, you know, these are reasons this is how this is important. This is how it ties to other things, or this is how it can be useful in in this class and other this is a skill that can transfer to other classes to help you do other things, right. Like, those kinds of answers. When you give them they're like, Okay, cool. But they, they accept it, and they're like, ready? And it makes sense to them. You know? Because if you're just like, because we have to, ya know, try telling that to a 12 year old, nothing, I get nothing. Yeah, I'm not gonna work. Yeah. But I think yeah, that's really good. You know, kind of philosophy behind it is being intentional and having the reason and having the knowledge yourself to be able to tell them that, right, like, if you if you were like, You got to drag the field left to right. I'd be like, what? Yeah, but if you're like, oh, because it evens out the dirt because we have a low spot here. I'd be like, okay, yeah, cool. Let's go right. Like, yeah, I mean, like, That makes so much sense it having an understanding and being able to understand it is just like, oh, okay, okay, and then you buy in more and you're ready to do more of it, instead of just being like out well, I know I got to do whatever he said, because I don't you know, I mean, like that's really cool. I like it. Or you finding that


Collin  59:52

you are getting good reception. How's that? Amen.


Aaron  59:56

Yeah, um, There's a lot to kind of say not like break in, but a lot of the kids that are like, so it's kind of a weird thing to look at, like kind of species between like my baseball boys and like my softball girls. Like, I had a lot of those baseball boys, little guys that were like, Okay, I can I can do this and no, and then you get out there, do it and you're like, No, that's wrong. What I was like, yeah, no, that's, that's wrong. Like, and this is and then you show them why. And then like, having kind of like, folded into it. How do we know how to do this? Like, do you? And then there's like, this is why we do it this way. Oh, okay. With my softball girls, it was a little bit different. Because like, I just started setting up the tractor. And there's, they're just congregating around me there, or what are you doing? Like, doing doing stuff? Right? Can we help? I was like, no certainly can. Because whenever we have have games, you're actually doing this by yourself. And so just the fact that I didn't have like, pulled teeth or no good kit, like find a way to get interested, there are medical cells. Our last code, like, never did anything like this before. Like, they never showed you how to drag a field. And they're like, Nope, they just kind of told us to leave. And that was the end of it. Oh, man. So it's kind of it's kind of cool that like the watch is like, get fascinated with it. Like, oh, this is how we do it. Yeah, no, it's kind of cool. So the fact that I don't have like, now let's do them. Yeah, it's kind of neat. And so I kind of get a kick out of that more than anything of life. And they themselves, like, make it interesting. And then they'd utilize me to get help with what they can. So that's kind of how I see it. And it's just unique to watch them. watch them grow. And, you know, the next time or a week later, so I've only coach do we need to, we need to drag the field this way. You know, let's build on top of that. And, you know, like, yeah, we do need to build the dragon this way. But let's also do it this and can you think of reasons why, for what we learned from this last week? Oh, cuz it does this, like that. So the fact that they're all like, they're, they're into it. without me having to like pull teeth that they're naturally interested in. Is is kind of cool. And it also kind of shows the pride that they were of, like, resources and tools and cool things like that, from previous coaches is, is kind of heartbreaking. But at the same time, like it just makes me look like really awesome, but Well, yeah.


Brandon  1:02:47

So that's kind of neat. But at the same time, it's like, yeah, no, this is how you do this. That's so cool. I know. But yeah, that's how so we've been working on release here lately.


Collin  1:03:07

Nice. Yeah. Nicely done. Yeah. I mean, but that's, that's cool that you can be that example. And again, I mean, influence again, because when, if you've never experienced that in your life, the first time someone comes along, and like he has been saying, like, Hey, this is what I'm doing. Like, it really does start opening up a lot more in your own life. And you're like, oh, look, look, there are reasons for why we do things, Ray. Yeah, that's kind of nice.


Brandon  1:03:43

I like it. Nice done. If only I can figure out how to apply that to actually writing complete sentences in your answer to about five of my children. Yeah,


1:04:00

so working on that one. But it's, again, overall, like, we've been talking about that a lot to


Brandon  1:04:08

that particular battle. He did better on the quiz today. Excellent, much, much more beautiful answers. Right, once they realize that. I actually talked to the language arts teacher, and we talked about this stuff. And I expect the same thing that she does. They like, oh, sorry. I was like, Guys, with this sentence make her happy, like, no. Yeah, I was like, we don't have to do it. Like to the exam. I'm not going to be grading you to like the exacting degree that she does, right? But I am going to be looking for some of the similar things and I want to make sure that we have these in there. They're looking better soon. Good. We're progressing. We're getting better at this Hopefully you know, it's all good


1:05:10

well, i


Collin  1:05:14

Good. That'd be back. That'd be back the string thing. Did you guys have a good week?


Brandon  1:05:20

We'll just keep an eye on the weather. The weather is the sky. Yes.


1:05:27

I am going to go old dog. Bride to go


1:05:35

last.


Brandon  1:05:38

Okay, well don't don't say as long as it's freezing. So I know. Layers bundle hat, right? So many things like


1:05:49

we'll talk offline


Collin  1:05:53

okay, I love you guys very much. And let me


1:05:56

do this. Oh yeah.


1:06:00

Have you guys let me do