Blaise Caudill

Guiding conversations with community leaders.

In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce. Perhaps providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals.

And Rocket Space, an event and meeting venue in the heart of the East Valley with a full service four person podcast studio. All right, Sarah, we got another episode of Guiding Growth happening right now.

We do. I'm so excited for this guest.

Why are you so excited for this guest?

He's just a bundle of joy. I love this guy.

Bundle of joy. Okay, so here we go. A third generation Arizonan with family roots in Bisbee. The youngest of four. That means he's the baby. And a proud mama's boy. A stargazing lobbyist who has a heart of selfless service and a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Everybody welcome. Blaze Caudill.

Yeah. Oh, my God. You got my last name right.

It took a couple tries, but we got it right.

No, that was perfect. That was great.

That was so good.

Bingo.

Banggo.

The bird and the pickle.

I love it. No, that's. Yeah, that's what I always tell people. Caw like a bird, dill like a pickle. Works out well.

Alright, Blaze. We like to start our segments with something we call rapid fire.

Whoa. That was done very well.

It's like in unison as if we'd done it before.

Wow.

All right. What is the last book you read?

Oh, gosh, I actually just finished a book, Sky Blues. Very fun book. Okay.

Would you ever go on vacation by yourself?

Yeah.

In three words. How would your best friend describe you?

Weird, funny, quirky.

Love it.

All right, so if you had to have intro music, which we all need that, what song would it be?

Absolutely. Hands down. It would be Celine Dion's version of Riverdeep. Mountain High.

Star wars or Star Trek?

Absolutely, Star Wars.

Favorite television show?

Oh, there's a really good series called Explained on Netflix that I love.

Winter or summer?

Definitely winter.

What did your mom call you when.

You were a kid, Blaze? She would also call me things like, hey, mijo. Yeah, she was cute.

Favorite holiday?

Ooh, Valentine's Day, probably. Because you get to celebrate two holidays. You get to celebrate Arizona Statehood Day and Valentine's Day.

Spoken like a true lobbyist. Oh, my God.

All right, last one. Glass. Half full or half empty?

I mean, why is there a glass in the first place? Is my question. Because why Are you trying to, like, why are you trying to contain me though? You know, like, let's have something else.

So it's definitely in the middle.

Oh, it's probably, let's be honest, half full. Because I'm eternal optimist. It's terrible.

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Well, I was excited to read a little bit about you because what I did not know is your love for astronomy and all things sparkly and bright in the sky. So that's awesome. Where did this come from?

Honestly, I just remember when I was a little kid, my mom. So my mom's a teacher, right? She taught elementary school for all of my childhood. She retired a couple of years ago.

You had her as a teacher?

You know what, they wouldn't let her actually be my teacher.

So I had two parents who were teachers also.

Oh, really?

But I had my dad, he was an art teacher, so I had him.

They let you be in his class?

Yeah, he's a wrestling coach too. So he's my coach. He's my art teacher. But I never had my mom. She's an English teacher.

Interesting.

But enough about Ben. Let's get back to you.

See, no, Ben and I are best friends.

My mom was a teacher too. So we all win here.

See? Why aren't we talking about your parents?

That's the Bart's family.

Oh, it was not, but let's do it.

I heard there was pop tarts for breakfast after today.

Bartsy.

So about those stars.

Those stars? Yeah. My mom was a teacher and she sort of at that time in the classrooms they always had themes, right? So it'd be like, oh, the classroom of butterflies or whatever the like mascot of that specific class was. My mom always was stars or superstars because she just loves stars. Love stars. And so growing up, stars were everywhere in our house. They were everywhere. In her classroom, I would help set up her classroom. There are stars everywhere. And so I think that really started my like, oh, what are these things? What are stars? Like, what actually is a star? I know it doesn't look like that figure that my mom has everywhere. And I remember just like looking up in the night sky and just being like, oh my gosh, like this beautiful and just not understanding it and then trying to understand something that was so incomprehensible and so incomprehensibly beautiful to me because it's so like sparkling. It inspires so much curiosity and inspires so much. You mean it's more than just a.

Flaming ball of gas?

More?

Well, I mean, sometimes it depends on who you talk to.

And you grew up in Tucson?

I did. I did. Good old Teatown.

That's some good viewing right there. There's not much light, you know, street lights going on here.

No, it's true. I remember when I go back now to visit my mom, it is the craziest thing. So I'm like, excuse me, why is it so dark here? I can't see anything on the road, but I can see all the stars, and it's so pretty.

And also, there's no drainage, but that's fine.

Oh, yeah. There's not a lot of anything.

I mean, there's not a lot of water.

No, not a lot of water. Except for monsoons. Monsoons are way better than Phoenix.

So how much study have you done in astronomy?

So when I was little, I wanted to be an astronomer. That's like, literally all I wanted to do was be an astronomer. And so I did a lot of study at that point, trying to just figure out everything I could about astronomy, Figure out everything I could about, oh, what is Jupiter? And all of that. So I did a lot of study at that point. When I was little, I went and toured a facility, it was Kip Peak Facility down in kind of Southern Arizona near Tucson, and toured that telescope area. And I was like, oh, my gosh, wait, Astronomers don't actually look through telescopes anymore. This is so sad. And I faced my first heartbreak at that point. I was literally heartbroken. And so because of that, I kind of really was turned off by it for a really long time until I got more into high school when I could really just focus on it some more and just, like, look at the pictures and be able to identify what things were. And just, like, you know, I just got to connect with it more at that point. And it was at a deeper level when I was in high school and older, because at that point, it was inspiring something within, like, within me that was emotional. When I was younger, it was much more wonder, and it was curiosity. And then when I was in high school and older, it became emotional. And it was a deeper connection to something that. Not only was it something that was beyond me in, like, the heavens, but also something that, like, I knew my ancestors would, like, also look at. And it was. It was just so, like, deep. It was so cool. I loved it.

So when you're outside, do you know, like, pretty much all the constellations that are out there, like Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and then I'm done.

That's all he's got.

Hang around, Sarah.

You get the dippers. And that's about it.

Right. Oh, I do love a good zipper. Yep.

But strangely enough, you're not an astronomer.

I am not. I am not an astronomer as much as I would love to be, but I really, honestly would have loved to just get paid to, like, stare through a telescope all night, and I couldn't do that. No, that was not an available job for me. So, no.

So here you are, then. You go to high school.

Where'd you go to high school?

Cdo. So, Canyon del Oro in Tucson. Home of the Dorados.

I just don't know enough about Tucson.

It has really good food, so you should go back for the food if nothing else.

Okay.

Dorados will beat Doritos for sure.

What is high school?

They called us the Doritos all the time. It was terrible. It was an ancient Aztec warrior. Thank you.

So what is high school like in Tucson? What do you do on Friday nights in Tucson?

No, I feel like I was, like, not your common high schooler student. You know what? I know. Who knew? Who would have thought?

Nobody wanted to go stare at the stars with you.

No, I know. See, I thought it was cool. I'm not gonna lie. I didn't know that. Like, so you know how you watch all these movies, right? And all these movies have high schoolers for, like, going to parties and drinking and things like that? I 100% thought that that was just, like, fake. I thought that wasn't real. I thought that was, like, a story that people did in, like, the 70s, you know? And it wasn't until my senior year of high school that I discovered people actually did that. It's like, wait, alcohol is real? I had no idea. Anyways, good job, parents. I know. You know, that sheltered life. It was good. Honestly, it was really good. My mom's like a saint. She really is. Like, I. You said it earlier. I'm a mama's boy through and through. And I honestly love my mother. If I could be one tenth my mother, it would be, like, a massive success.

Awesome.

Primarily because she just cared so much about not only the community, but then our family. And she was just so strong, and she. I mean, to this day, she's so resilient. So strong.

Wait, I want to ask you something about that, because I was thinking, I was reflecting on this. Like, was it always that way, even when you were younger or were you a Typical teenager who later came to appreciate your mother.

Oh, I see this, actually. Okay, this is a great story. So you mentioned the youngest of four, the baby. Oh, I'm such a baby, too. I am, like, the classic baby. Got away with more than anything. All. All my siblings, they definitely were always like, why does he get away with that? I'm like, cause I'm the cutest and the youngest. Yeah.

Save the best for last.

Yes. See? Thank you.

Plus, they've gone through everything, and they don't know, like, we're done.

Also, I was also just, like, a really good kid.

Like, okay, we'll go with that.

I was very good. I was always the one who was like, mom, yeah. Give me this responsibility. Let me do my homework. Thank you. Oh, literally that. And Pokemon. Give me that. I was good. Yeah. But being the youngest of four, there was a huge gap between me and my. The next brother. There was four years. So basically my entire high school was just me and my mom at our house. And so through that, we became. I mean, we were best friends at that point anyways, in the sense of, like, oh, you're my mom. But through those four years, we really became best friends, and we finally got to see each other. Well, I guess more. I saw her for the first time as a person that wasn't my mom, but she was my friend and somebody that I could go to. And she experienced her own emotions. She experienced her own world that I could not understand, and it was bigger than me. And so there was one day in specific. So my parents got divorced when I was super little. I was in. God. How old was I? I was in third grade. So what are you, seven or eight at that point. And I remember my mom had started dating when I was probably a junior in high school. And I remember being super uncomfortable by it because I was just like, who is this person? I don't know who you are. Why are you in my mom's life?

Why are you hugging my mom?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, super weird. Also, didn't help that they weren't very pretty. I was like, no, no. Goodbye. My mom is a pretty person. Like, we are not gonna have you coming in my house. So apparently, Junior Blaze was already sassy. Yeah, it was a good time. And I remember I was sitting. My mom was getting ready for her date or something like that, and I was sitting on her bed. She was in the bathroom, and we were talking about it, and I was expressing, like, concern about her going on a date or something. And I remember her telling me at that Point. You know, Blaze, at some point, I hope that you can be as happy for me as I can be for you. And it was that moment of, like, pure, beautiful vulnerability that my mom shared with me that I was able to see her as a person. And it completely changed her entire relationship because she was able to just be her without the mother filter, without anything else. It was just her. And I loved it. And I mean, through that. I mean, we've been best friends since I talked to her literally every day.

So how do you being so close to your mom, then not long after that, you head off to Nautilus?

Oh, I did. I love Flagstaff. That's why I want it to be cold. Really? Like, I love being cold. Yes. Okay. But think about it this way.

Tucson, hot, Hot, hot.

Yeah, Tucson's hot. And clothing wise, you can always take totally wardrobe or put more on.

Oh, I was thinking wardrobe.

I mean, yeah. No, I mean, yeah, wardrobe. Right. The wardrobe is way better in the winter, and you can always add more clothing during the summer. You can only take so much off before. I like, still going to EG's and, like, hey, can't do that, you know, so that's fair. Love winter way more. And I just. I wanted something that was completely different. I wanted something different than Tucson and Phoenix, even though Phoenix is very different than Tucson. I wanted to experience a different culture. I wanted to experience something smaller, someplace where you could genuinely just like, connect with the community in ways that I didn't really when I was in Tucson.

Plus, you want to be a lumberjack.

Oh, yeah. Because a lumberjack can, you know, go jacks. We have, like, a little symbol. It's kind of cool.

Yeah, we do too.

Is that like E.T. phone home.

Mode.

Phone home. It's okay.

It's called forks up.

Oh. That's what she tried to do.

I've seen that.

I know what that is.

You know, I've seen it once or twice on a shirt.

Once or twice. That's fine. I mean, and I use we're close, so that's fine.

I mean, NAU did beat the U of A at football this year. A. Yeah. It was amazing. Wow. Mm.

All right, so tell me, you go to nau?

Yes.

And this is where you sort of start finding a different love for community and just engaging and activating others. What does that look like?

Yeah. So when I went to nautical, honestly, NAU and Flagstaff in general was the first time that I felt like I could genuinely be me. So, I mean, so I came out when I was 14. I came out very young, right? I was in high school, but I never felt like I could actually be fully me in Tucson, because I was still under my mom's house. I wasn't on my own. I had my own friends. I have my best friend at the time who absolutely loved me, and we're still best friends to this day. And I could be me around him, but I could never just, like, do me, you know? And once I got to Flagstaff, once I got to nau, I finally was like, oh, I can do me. Like, I don't need to call my mom and be like, hey, mom, I'm gonna go to whatever restaurant I can just go. Like, this is awesome. And on top of that, I can walk. Yes. It was that feeling of freedom. That's honestly what it was. It was a pure sense of freedom. And with that came the ability to be able to just follow your own passions and follow things that. Where you find joy and what. That feeling of belonging, you can follow that. And it's beautiful and it's amazing. And I loved it. And so I remember my freshman year, actually, at orientation. So even before freshman year started, my brother took me. My brother had gone to NAU as well. He took me to orientation, and he. Because my mom couldn't at the time, he had a lot of friends who were still at nautical. And he was like, okay, here's the agenda for orientation. What do you actually want to go to? I was like, oh, I don't know. What should I go to? I was still kind of shy at the time, even though I was sassy. Still shy. And he's like, no, do you need to go to this session? I was like, yeah, probably not. He's like, cool, then I'm going to take you around. Great. Also, if any of you listening to this, sorry. I did go to orientation. I loved every minute of it. And anyone who goes, you should go to orientation. Put that caveat on this. But I didn't attend some of the sessions, which actually ended up being like, the best thing ever, because I ended up meeting the then student body president of asnau, the Associated Students of nau. And she looked at me, she's like, we're going to make you student body president. I was like, I don't think you're right. That's funny. I was like, I've never done student government. I'm not a student government person.

Was not accepted, huh?

No. That was denied, like, full on denial, Miss. That was not me. I'm not that type of, like, the let me go to a pep rally. No, no, thank you. I have a good time in my band. I have a great time with that. No, I'm not gonna go be a pep rally. Like, pom pom. Little did I know student government's completely different when you're in undergrad. And so she was like, you know what? Just come to these couple meetings. You'll love it. I'm like, okay. So I start being involved with the, like, freshman oriented or the freshman government and figuring out, oh, wait, I can put on events. I can listen to people. People, like, come to us to express concerns and needs, and we get to actually do something about it. Like, this is nuts. And not only can we do something about it, but we have money to do something about it. Like, we can actually make projects happen. We can create scholarships. We can. It was amazing. And so that really was the first time that I felt the ability to make real change, was the moment that students were coming to asnu, that students were coming to me specifically and saying, you know what? I have this concern about what this one class is or what food is like here, and I want to change it. And this is how I think we should do it. Can we do it? And we were able to make it happen.

So, Blaze, while you're going through that process, anybody influencing you during that, like, you mentioned your brother kind of brought you on, but I doubt that was the influence. Like, were there particular people in the program that you can reflect on that really helped guide you through that or that kind of opened your eyes to some of the stuff? Or did you just figure it on your own?

No. Oh, God, no. It was definitely not on my own at all. So there were a lot of people. I think that oftentimes when you talk to people who are involved in the community, you find out that it's not the person that's just speaking to you. It's oftentimes the people that are behind them or the people that are supporting them or just their network of people that you talk to. Right. I'm a firm believer that anybody who's in a leadership position, it's always about the voice that they're sharing, the statements that they're sharing. It's never their own thoughts fully. It's always a grouping of everything that they're hearing. It's always a grouping of the people around them. And so for me, when I was really starting my community activism and engagement, some of the primary people that were really inspiring to me were these current student body president at the time her name was Kathleen Templin, primarily because she believed in me. From the moment that I met her, there was no question in her mind. She just said, you know, we're going to make you student body president. I was like, okay, sure. But she legitimately believed in me. And it happened, you know, beyond that, through the Arizona Students association, which was the statewide association at the time advocating on behalf of students and student needs. There was a gentleman. His name is David Martinez iii, who is still one of my biggest mentors and closest friends. He, in the same way as Kathleen, just genuinely believed in me. I remember there was one night we were walking around. It was kind of late at night. He was up in Flagstaff. He was based in Phoenix at the time. He was in Flagstaff doing a training for all of our interns. And he sat me down, like we were near the student union. He sat me down and said, please. What do you, like? What do you want to do? What do you want to be? I was like, honestly, David, I don't know. I want to. I want to be engaged in the community. I want to make something happen. I want to feel like I am leaving this place better than it was when I found it. I want to feel like people feel connected and heard. I don't know what that looks like. And he said, you know what? We need to engage you even deeper in student government. We need to engage you even deeper with those who are making decisions. And David was the reason that I got connected as deeply as I did in student government. And then beyond that, David is actually the reason that I got my first big boy job. He's been an actual. An absolute inspiration to me, continues to be an inspiration to me, and I know he's an inspiration to our entire community.

That's awesome. It's good to hear that, too, because I know that everybody. Everybody we talk to on the show has always got some form of inspiration of somebody influencing them. That's the premise of the show, too. Right? And so it's good to hear your story on that side. So let's back up. Rewind a bit more, because I see in the notes here that when you were very young, you were diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. But then we're cured at age five and a half. So talk about that. I mean, I don't know how much of that you remember being little. Little, but perhaps that influenced you in some of the things from then to now.

Oh, absolutely. It's kind of funny. I was actually just having this conversation last night, so I don't really actually talk about my leukemia almost ever. I was sharing it with some people that I've known for a long time, and they hadn't. They didn't know either. Like, wait, why don't you talk about this? And I. Sharing that. Like, it doesn't really feel like my story. Like, it was. Obviously, I lived through it technically. Right. But as you mentioned, I was pretty young. I was 18 months when I was diagnosed. We were living in Bisbee at the time. There was a cluster in Bisbee, so that was about 10 of us who were all diagnosed with this very, very aggressive form of all. And out of the ten of us, two of us lived. Yeah, it was extremely aggressive.

Was it environmentally based of some kind?

I mean, obviously, that's what I think people assume. Bisbee being as small as it is, and then my family being as low as SES as we were. I mean, at that point, we just didn't have a lot of money at all. There was no way that we were going to ever, like, look into whether or not it was environmental or not. But obviously, I think they could probably say there was something going on, if nothing else. And so, yeah, I was diagnosed at 18 months. My family, again, being really not well off, didn't have the ability to pay for my treatment. We had to go to Tucson for treatment. I was considered a guinea pig. So I was put into these trials of chewable chemotherapy. Yeah. So. Which really messed up my teeth for a really long time, actually. Yeah. Crazy. It literally, like, made my teeth have these, like, really long roots and tiny little teeth. Yeah, it was weird, but it. I mean, I was cured when I was age 5. I was in this guinea pig grouping, if you will, cohort until I was 18 years old. So I'd go back every year because they thought that I was going to have some mental slowdowns and mental disabilities in relation to my treatment, and they were very, very shocked that I didn't.

Quite the opposite.

Thank you. It was honestly, for me, when I was younger, I was like, oh, my gosh. I just go get to play these games and get $100 and I go, great. That sounds fun.

Sign me up.

I know. Yeah. Don't really know what's going on there, but sure. Yeah. It really did impact me a lot, though, despite the fact that I don't really remember it a whole lot because I was so young. I mean, 18 months to five, you don't really remember a ton.

It has to impact. It had to have impact. The way your mom raised you 100%.

And not only did it impact the way that my family disengaged, period, with me, with each other, with the community, but it also just showed me, even, like, now I think about it now, it showed me how much community action can really change a life. So I mentioned that my family was really not well off, and we couldn't. I mean, we couldn't pay for my treatment. And so my family actually worked with, like, the entire city of Bisbee and put on this event called Blazing for Blaze. I know. And it was really cute. And they had T shirts made.

I was gonna ask if you had shirts.

Yes, there were T shirts. Oh, always T shirts. And this is like the early 90s, so they're even better T shirts. This nice, like, really good turquoise color shirt. Cool. And it had a black logo of, like, this, like, shoe on it, and it said Blazing for plays on it. Yeah. So through that one fundraiser, we were actually able to pay for my treatment. And it was through the community coming to support my family. Even people who didn't know my family. Right. Like, we didn't know the entire city of Disney, but they all came to support my family, and they all came together to make sure that we could afford my treatment. And so I'm here today, literally, because of all of those people who came together to help support me. And so when you talk about how does it impact me, how does it influence me, yeah, obviously it influenced the way that I engage with my mom and influence the way that I engage with my community, but it also just inspires me, literally daily, because I know that I am here because other people cared, and so I want to show that care to other people.

Yeah. It says here that your mom told you that you're on Earth to do something big, and you're still exploring what that means to you.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a really big question, right? It's like, what does that look like? And for me, it's a constant journey. It's a constant learning. I think that when you talk about, okay, what am I here to do? And when you're young, you get told often, like, well, for me, I was really lucky. I was told often that I was here for something big, which can put a lot of stress on you, I think. But at the same time, it was also really inspiring, and it pushed me to do more, and it continually, like, pushes me to do more and achieve more, because I want to make sure that I'm living up to my mother. I want to make sure that I'm living up to my family, to the community that gave me so much.

Well, you have to put big in the context of the situation you're in, too, because that's means something different to everybody, I think.

Absolutely. And I think that it's sometimes not necessarily fully up to us to decide what big looks like. Right. Sometimes big can be something that's like, you know, doing a fundraiser that raises all this money. Right. That can be really big. But I think on one of my first jobs, when I was working with St. Mary's Food bank clients right after my undergrad, we were doing this thing called a mobile pantry. So we literally took this, like, massive truck, like a 16 wheeler, whatever, 18 wheelers. How many wheels are there?

There's a big truck.

Yeah, there's a big truck. Real big truck that I don't know how to drive. And we were in Winslow. We get this truck there. We have all these, like, fresh fruits and emergency food boxes and things like that that we're delivering to people who need it.

We're listening to the Eagles in Winslow, Arizona. I should have.

Love the Eagles.

I do, too. I've been to a concert. It's amazing.

Oh, that would be so good. That'd be nice. I did stand on the corner. It was fun. Um, it was cold, but it was good. Uh, I looked great.

Great winter wardrobe.

Yes. See? Thank you, peacock and all. And so we were doing this mobile pantry and this truck, because it was all done via car, except it was just quicker that way. So a truck comes by, and we get the food into the truck. We're having them sign the paperwork, whatever. And there's a mom in the car, and then a daughter. Young daughter. She's probably, like, five. And I happen to have an apple in my hand. I don't remember why I had it in my hand. I just happened to have it in my hand. And it was one of the apples from, like, the collection of fruits that we had. And the girl looked at me and said, can I have that? I was like, yeah. I mean, I just literally am holding onto this for no reason. So I give her the apple, and her face lights up. She's like, automatically, you see it just, like, brilliant. And she's so grateful for this, like, apple. Like, it's the best thing she's ever seen in her whole life. And I was like, wow, that was cool. I'm super busy at the time, though. So they keep going. About maybe 20 minutes later, 25 minutes later, the same truck comes through the line, but they're not getting food. This Time. Everyone's like, hey, this truck isn't getting food. Like, they just want you to come through. And so we're like, okay. And what had happened was the girl, the young girl, she had actually written out a card to me and, like, drawn me a photo, like a picture. And she wanted to give it to me to say thank you for her apple because she was so thankful. And that one moment, honestly, was this, like, huge shift for me because I realized what I could do. And that question of what is big, right? For her, that apple was really big in that moment. It was. I mean, it brought her joy. It brought her just so much that I didn't even know. And so to me, that is what I aspire to do every single day, is do something big like that. Even if it doesn't seem big to me in that moment, for that one person, it might be. Yeah.

All right, so final question for me. What's the next five years look like for you?

Oh, gosh.

What's on that map? What's on that radar? What's in that telescope for you?

What is in the skies? I don't know. Right. You know, when I was younger, like when I was in my early 20s, I always operate on these like five year plans. I always had this five year plan. And I was really fortunate that I was able to do what's called the Flynn Brown Civic Leadership Academy.

Wait, pause.

Yeah.

So when you were in your 20s, like five years ago.

Is that because of my moisturizer?

Two five year plans is what we're working with. Okay, Just making sure.

I mean, let's be honest. Every five year plan is a one year plan that you reevaluate every year. Right. So it's like 17. Okay.

Still sticks on paper is five years.

Just go with it.

Let's get back to your journey.

So I was operating on these, like, five year plans, started doing the Flynn Brown Civic Leadership Academy, which I was very, very, very fortunate to be able to participate in. As part of the academy, you're given a mentor that you work with, a career mentor, and you meet with them over the year and they walk you through, like, oh, okay, what do you want to do? How are we going to get you there? And so I was telling her, you know, I want to be elected by. I'm 28, I want to be elected to this office. I want to do this by 30, all of these things. Right. This was all my five year plan. And she kind of looked at me, said, well, why 28? Like, because that's in my five year plan. But that's what I'm doing. I'm going to be elected by 2020.

That's how the map looks, lady.

Yeah. This is literally, I have no choice. This is what this five year plan says, right? Like, I am doing this. And she said, well, okay, but why? Are you really ready to do that right now? I said, well, I think so. She's like, okay, let's think about it some more. She's like, you know, five years plans are really good opportunities for you to reflect. Right. They're great opportunities for you to reflect on what your needs are, what you want to do, how you want to help the community. But they're not binding documents. It is not a roadmap. It is a aspiring journal, if you will. And so when you ask me, okay, well, what are five year plans for me now, it's hard because I don't necessarily operate on those anymore because of that one moment. Because for me, not being able to free myself in that moment, when she said, hey, why are you doing this five year plan thing? Why? Why is that important for you? I really did free myself from them and said, I'm going to have these goals of, okay, yeah, I want to finish grad school, let me do that. But beyond that, I don't need to operate on this timeline. And that freedom has been really, really helpful for me because it's opened so many doors. It's opened doors that I would have said no to prior to because it didn't fit in this five year plan. But those doors are the reason that I'm here today. Those doors are the reason that I'm engaged in government the way that I am. So what does the next five years look like? I hope to buy a house, but we'll see how that turns out. I hope to be happy, I hope to be inspiring joy. I hope you'd be smiling and laughing. Those are literally what my five year plans are, right? Yep. But as far as, like, career goes, I just want to do those big things.

Do you hope to stay in sort of the political lobbyist realm? Yeah.

I love you.

You're great at what you do.

Oh, you're so nice. Thank you. No, I honestly love it because you get to just meet so many people. Like oftentimes when people ask what I do for a living, I'm like, I literally go on like a billion first dates. And I love first dates. Literally, that's what I do. I go on first dates, I host parties where nobody knows each other, and then I have a Rolling encyclopedia of knowledge.

That's it. That's a great way to look at it.

Yeah.

I love that kind of speed dating, right?

Oh, it's absolutely speed dating. It's wonderful. I'm like, so tell me everything about you and why do you tick the way you do in five minutes?

And you're fascinated by that. I love. I mean, you really do dive in. As I shared, our first lunch was an hour and a half of we shouldn't say that. No business. We talked a little bit of business.

We totally talk business.

Okay, so my last question. You wrote the longest way around is the shortest way home. What does that mean to you?

You know, it kind of goes back to this five year plan question, right. I always place so much pressure, so much pressure on myself to achieve, to beat these goals, to be elected by 28, because that's what I wanted to do. You know, that's how I define success. And it put so much pressure on me that I was constantly, like, lost. Honestly, I was ungrounded and lost because I wasn't centered. I wasn't grounded in who I am, why, why I am. I wasn't grounded in my why. Simon Sinek. Sinek. I don't know how you say his last name. That whole, like, what is your why? Thing, very much something that I took to heart and I, for a very long time was not grounded in my why in any way. And so longest way around is shortest way home to me is always about this idea that, yeah, sometimes things take a really long time and you might go down all these, like, random roads. You might be on these, like five year plans that you think you need to be on. You might go down a road that is a friendship that you didn't expect. Right. It might take a long time, but eventually you will find your center. You will find that thing that drives you. You will find your why. It will take a long time, but it will be good. Thanks.

Thank you for being with us today.

Oh, my God. No, thank you. This has been a lot of fun. This has been the biggest honor ever. And more than anything, this is my first podcast and I am so excited to know how they make this sound like there's a specific podcast sound. I'm like, oh, I also sound like that. I thought it had a special voice. No, everybody can sound like this is.

Way more than a five minute speed date. So welcome to that.

Thank you. Do you want to do a second one? We could do a second date.

I'm always up for a second date with Blaze.

I don't remember the last time I had a second date. Let's do it. There we go.

Well, Blaze, thank you for being here and this has been a lot of fun. So if you like this conversation you want to hear more, be sure to subscribe to our tribe. We'd love to have you join us and get these episodes in your inbox whenever we send them out.

There's so many more journeys to share. We can't wait.

Guiding Conversations with Community Leaders.

Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast?

This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us. So I think there's many opportunities at hand. Whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us. Let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you. Reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.

Sa.