https://www.listennotes.com/e/93b953ce87ee47aca28174948d6e7266

This episode is sponsored by Gilbert Independent YourValley.net dedicated to serving readers with good community journalism, the Gilbert Independent is a nonpartisan newspaper, an online site that covers your town's institutions, development and events. Subscribe and follow YourValley.net daily to stay up to date with the latest local news.

This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce and Modern Moments wedding and event venue and produced by Sleepy Time Studios.

And today, we've got yet another amazing guest for us. And who might that be, Sarah?

We have a very special guest today and someone who I've been asking for a while to join us, so I'm so glad he's here.

Our guest today is a fifth generation Arizona native who grew up on a farm in Gilbert and has spent his life deeply connected to the East Valley Valley. A successful entrepreneur, he built and operated multiple businesses before stepping into public service, serving four terms in the Arizona House of Representatives. During his time in office, he chaired key committees and worked across party lines to pass impactful legislation. Now, as the executive director of ASU's Office of Government and Community Engagement, he continues to foster meaningful connections between the university, business, businesses, and civic organizations. He is a devoted husband, father, and proud grandfather. Please welcome the one and only Ward Nichols.

Here we go.

Hello.

Hello.

What a beautiful day to be in the East Valley. The Valley of the Sun.

That's right.

No better place.

Yeah, it is a good one. Well, we'd like to start with what.

We call rapid fire.

Go ahead.

Would you rather travel to the past.

Or to the future?

Oh, I would definitely go to the past.

Okay, next question is, what is your hidden talent?

Oh, golly, hidden talent. I would have to say probably my woodworking abilities.

Oh, all right.

Would you rather attend a hip hop.

Or a rock concert?

Now, Sarah, I'm a product of the late 80s and so hair bands all the way. There was hair bands, there was alternative rock, there was all of those things. And so it would definitely be a rock concert.

Okay.

We were just debating this last night about Def Leppard. Are they really in a ballad concert group or are they more of a rock and rol? And my wife was definitely like, no, they're rock and roll.

They had the hair, too, back in the day. Yeah. So maybe still today, too. I'm not sure.

Maybe.

Yeah.

Might all be white now, but okay. Have you ever lived abroad?

I have. I lived in Korea for a spell. I had an opportunity to go there for some work and went there and helped develop some EMS services for a hospital there that had no ambulance service, so it was working with a Dr. Linton there. It was quite an experience.

That's cool.

What is your favorite go to snack.

Oh, chips and salsa.

Okay. Certain brand of chips.

Don Julio's lightly seasoned with a bowl of El pato.

Okay.

That's specific. All right. I like that.

Don't mess it up.

This might be what it is. But what makes you hopeful?

You know, the future makes me hopeful. Getting to work with ASU and seeing the generous generation of kids that are behind us. I know they get a lot of flack for a lot of things, but they are brilliant and it really creates a lot of excitement for the future.

I appreciate you saying that. Are you more of a thinker or a doer?

I am. My wife would tell you I'm definitely more of a doer, and she's that thinker part end for me, but I try to balance it.

So she slows you down a little bit?

She does slow me down a little bit, but that's a good thing.

I always ponder this one when I ask people because I don't know how I'd answer it. But here's your question. If someone were to play you in a movie, who would you want it to be?

Oh, gosh, you know, how about Sean Connery?

Oh, very distinguished.

Right, right. One of my favorites. Yeah. Yeah. Or, you know, you could even go back to John Wayne and some of those other. I mean, yeah, I'm going probably way too far back, but those are some of my favorites.

I like it. I like it.

What is your favorite pastime or hobby?

My favorite pastime and hobby is spending time with my family in the mountains.

Okay, that's great.

Last one. Glass half full or half empty?

Definitely a half full.

Awesome.

All right.

Every day at aps, we're here to help you save energy and money.

APS solutions for business can help you make energy efficient upgrades more affordable.

Find rebates@aps.com businessrebates.

Want to start your own podcast? Whether it's a business, personal, internal, or hobby podcast, Sleepytime Studios can help you with everything you need to get your podcast recorded, edited, hosted, and shared with the world. Get started on the podcast of your dreams@sleepytimestudios.com mentioned guiding growth and get 10% off any podcasting package@sleepytimestudios dot com.

All right, well, I know you, but I feel like I still have a lot to learn, so I'm excited for our conversation today. So let's explore what childhood looked like for you growing up on that farm in Gilbert. Paint the picture for us.

Oh, gosh. Paint the picture. So as I was driving here today, just right up at Baseline and Val Vista, on the north side of Baseline. The west side of Val Vista was one of my family's dairies back in the day. The land was sold when I was quite young, but for a long period of time, even after Val Vista Lakes was built there, you could still see some of the concrete feeders from the dairy and whatnot. But yeah, growing up on a small farm here, we raised a lot of calves, bottle fed them. Woke up at 4 o' clock in the morning before school and would fe 30 or 40 calves and hoped that they would all make it. But yeah, went to Gilbert Elementary, Gilbert Jr. Gilbert High.

Wait, wait, wait. So we're sitting in your family's farm probably right now, like where we're located here.

So we were on the. Did I say south side of baseline? We were on the north side of baseline.

Oh, the mesa side.

Yes, the mesa side. Right there in that, literally that corner of Val Vista and Baseline, on that northwest corner was a large. Which is now Dana park family dairy that we had. And I don't know who they sold it to back in the day, but it was gone before I was real old. But the farm that I grew up on was there until at least about the mid-80s.

Okay. Or so.

Yeah.

And where was that farm?

Ray and Lindsay is where the farm was. And it was just a growing up in Gilbert and Queen Creek. We had some pastures that we ran cattle, actually, right across from ASU Polytechnic campus. Now we had some spring pastures that would push cattle over there. It was a natural seep area. But growing up in this area, I look back at it and I tell my kids all the time and they're sick of hearing me say it, but it was truly a magical moment in time to grow up here and to be able to just do the things that we got to do growing up that kids probably don't have as many opportunities to these days.

Well, it makes me think that the town grew up right alongside you. I mean, the explosion of population and resources and things coming to town and new businesses was just as you grew.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and as Gilbert is fabulous today, as. As is Queen Creek and everything else. But I, I can definitively tell you that driving around, I, I don't recognize the Gilbert I grew up in anymore. I mean, it, it is definitely. It's definitely gone. I mean, you can get some snippets of it if you Drive to the downtown Gilbert area and kind of see the old walking areas there for the shops and stuff like that. There's a snippet of it, but Gilbert's definitely in a different place today than it used to be.

Yeah.

What do you think when you look back on the time growing up here? What do you miss about it the most?

The openness, the open space. I miss. You know, my dad used to say that the manure smell was the smell of money. And so I miss driving down the roads and seen the miles and miles of. Whether it be cotton fields or alfalfa fields or dairies. And believe it or not, for those that have come here later to Gilbert, those were everywhere. I mean, it's what I grew up with, and I miss that.

That manure smell smells like home to me, growing up in Chandler.

Yeah, it's a smell of money, as my dad would say, because we ran a lot of cattle. Yeah.

How old were you when we were able to start driving tractors?

Oh, gosh, that's probably a question. If my dad was alive, he'd probably tell me not to say it, but he set me on phone books on this old case tractor that we had that had a hand clutch that you'd do with your clutch. And he literally set me on phone books and told me to keep it straight as we would drive the tractor down the field and they would throw hay into it. And as we would get down to the end, he would run down, stand on the edge of the tractor with me sitting on, would turn it for me, get it going straight again, and then I would hold it straight. And I did that with tractors and trucks. And I probably had to have been not any older than four.

Nice.

That's amazing. Did you have siblings growing up?

I did. I still do. Three older sisters and one older brother. So I was the last of the five. Yep.

Wow.

Yep.

Call that the baby.

By the way, my sisters still will call me the baby of the family, which is all right, you know.

But now you appreciate it.

I do. I do. So my sisters are all very active individuals, and growing up, that was a challenge sometimes because we all had very strong personalities. But they were also 9, 10, and 11 years ahead of me. And so I was glad to get them married and out of the house.

You had a lot of mom, so.

Yes.

Oh, my gosh.

Cool. All right. So you said Gilbert High is where you went?

Yep. Gilbert High. The tigers. Yes.

So tell me about that. Was Gilbert High? What was it like then? And fond memories of Gilbert High?

You know, It's. I believe it's a junior high over there now. The old Gilbert High School. We. We were the last official class to graduate out of the old Gilbert High School before they moved. I know, I know. The new one is. To me, the new one is old now, too, but, yeah, that openness, not the enclosed. And, you know, growing up and going to high school there, you know, the street would shut down for homecoming. Right. For the homecoming football parade. And we would all, you know, put on our football jerseys and walk proud down the road.

What position were you playing?

Well, I know I probably don't look like I have the size, but I played nose guard and center.

Nice.

So I like to hit people. It was fun.

And we're gonna get to your elected office later, but.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

No, no, it was. No, go ahead.

No, I was just doing a drum roll for that little joke she made there.

Yeah, but, you know, our class. I'm trying to remember how big our class was. It was probably, you know, 400 graduates or so. 350 to 400 graduates. We were growing. You know, at that time, people had discovered the best kept secret Gilbert and were already starting to come. And so we would greet new people every year that their families had moved. But there was definitely a core group of people that I grew up with that we were together from kindergarten all the way through graduation and high school.

Anyone we would know.

You know, Danny, Barney and I were together for a long period of time. We weren't together in kindergarten, but met each other right out of about the sixth grade. And we're troublemakers together. Yeah, the barnyard bunch in high school. Rooting on our basketball team and everything. So. Yeah.

That's amazing. What did. When you were growing up, did you think farming was going to be your future?

Oh, no. Oh, no.

Okay, fair enough.

While I, you know, growing up in it and again, waking up at 4am to bottle feed calves and all the different stuff that you do on a farm, I didn't really think anything of it because that's just what you do. But there was one Christmas, and I can't remember exactly where it was in my timeline, but there was one Christmas where my uncle and aunt were out of town and they had a dairy, of course. And my dad had committed that we would go help with the dairy while they were gone, so no big deal. Would do our chores, then we'd go over to the dairy and do some chores and help over there and come home. But it was around Christmas, and I remember waking up Christmas morning, super Excited, ready to go in and open up presents and get going. And my dad was like, well, we got to do our chores. Okay, yeah, sorry, dad. You know, excited. Let's go do our chores. So we got done with our chores, and then he said, okay, get in the truck. We got to go over and do the chores at the dairy. And I'm like, well, but wait a minute. And he was like, well, animals don't wait. They still have to be fed, they still have to be taken care of. And that was kind of a moment in my life where I'm like, I. I don't want to do this the rest of my life. I want to have downtime when I want downtime. And being on a farm, being on a dairy, doing those things, there is no downtime. It's seven days a week. If you want to go on vacation, you find people to cover the chores while you're on vacation and whatnot. So that's when I said, no, yeah, I need to do something different.

Was there when you were growing up, were there individuals at that time that were showing you something different or opportunity that you saw?

You know, I had a uncle Jim Cooper, who had served in the legislature at that time. And so, yeah, I was exposed to a lot of different things out fixing fences and doing different things with my dad. He would always talk about the local politics of what was going on and local things. Obviously, at the time I grew up, I was exposed to a lot of trade type things. I mean, I learned how to work on cars, I learned how to weld, I learned how to do woodworking, I learned how to do all those things because on the farm, you have to do all that. You have to do all that. And so all of that stuff I was exposed to as far as things kind of in the professional nature of things, not so much so a little bit, but not maybe at church and different. Just exposures that I would get there, but not necessarily from the farm.

Yeah, yeah, cool sports. You talked about that. I always like to talk about the mentors and people that might have inspired you. So sticking with this to that high school model, what comes to mind?

Well, you know, you gotta give a quick pat on the back. We were state champs in football when I was on the team.

Well, obviously.

Well, obviously. You know, that year, one of the points of pride in our season was we. We got to march over to Mountain View and beat Mountain View on their home field that year, even though we were in different divisions at the time. But yeah, I loved sports and it was Always just a given. I think my parents raised me and my brother and my sisters. It was just a given that you're going to be participating in sports. And so I loved football. Just loved football. I shouldn't even admit this, but the last football game I played was on Mesa High's football field. We were in the quarterfinals my senior year. Junior year is when we got the state championship. But my senior year we were in the quarterfinals and we lost that game in an Arizona playoff overtime. And I went back to the locker room, took my football helmet off and bawled. I mean, I just bawled. And I was like, I didn't have the size to go to the next level. I knew all that stuff. And so I was like, this is the last time.

You just knew that was it.

That was it.

You're going to blame that on targeting too?

That was targeting just like the ASU Texas football game, Sarah? Yes, absolutely. But yeah, I also played baseball and I wrestled. And so I was a three sport letterman in high school. Kept very, very busy. And I think, obviously, I know as a parent, I try to keep my kids busy. My parents were masterful at it because between that and doing the chores and the farm work and stuff, I didn't know there was any other life. Yeah.

Do you remember what you wrestled at your senior year?

My senior year I wrestled. I think it was 165 right in that range.

That's a tough spot right there.

So it was, it was the meaty, meaty area of competition for sure. And I wish I could say I got a state championship in wrestling, but no, I just was not that good. I mean, I won, but I wasn't a phenomenal wrestler. I did baseball. I did really, really well in baseball, but I didn't love baseball.

Well, you make growing up in Gilbert sound like the good old days.

Oh, it was fabulous. I mean, again, not to go back too far, but I can remember in elementary school going to the old Gilbert elementary right there off of Gilbert. It's now a museum. But growing up and going to elementary school, the small town feel that we had at the time, I mean, everybody knew everybody. Fourth of July, we'd meet on the football field and would have gunny sack ra watermelon eating contest and then would all sit back in the football bleachers and watch the fireworks get shot off right there. I mean, that was Gilbert. That was the entirety of Gilbert at the time. That would come and participate in that.

Makes it difficult to get in trouble if everyone knows everybody.

Oh, trouble. I didn't seek it out. Trouble seemed to find me. I mean, thinking back a little bit, too, where the Chamber of Commerce is located now used to be the old JP Courthouse and City Hall. And I can remember going into the justice court for my first time. I think I was probably about 13, 12 or 13, and Don Skousen was the justice of the peace. And I had got caught riding my motorcycle down baseline. And at the time, again, you could ride all over on dirt roads, canal roads, farm fields, all those different things. But I decided to go out on the road because it was a faster route to wherever I was going. And yes, I got caught and had to do a lot of community service. And I wish I could say that was my only visit with him for that type of stuff, but it wasn't.

But at least he didn't get put in the basement down where the cellar is down there, you know, that's scary. That's where I hear all. Yeah, all the stories come from.

Okay, so take us after high school. What happens next?

So after high school, I trotted off to college in Rexburg, Idaho, and started my college journey. And after a year there, I came home and departed on a mission for my church. And so it went to Texas, of all places.

Oh, did you?

Yes, I did.

Oh, no.

What was it like leaving Arizona, going to Idaho? What did that look like for you?

And then Texas leaving the valley here and heading to Idaho. Cold. Rexburg was so cold. Yeah, but I love snow sports. And so we used to jot over to the Grand Targhees and, you know, snowboarding wasn't a thing even thought of, I think, at that point in time. So we'd go over to the Grand Targheese and ski. And my grades, my first year in college showed that I did it way too often. And so that, that of it was fabulous. But. But running, running off to Idaho and just experiencing something different was. I love adventure. And so I. I loved every bit of it. It was, it was just. It was awesome. But it was also awesome to come back home, too.

Yeah. When you look back on that, what do you think? Or maybe your mission? What do you think you learned? What. What do you carry into your life today?

So previous to heading off on my mission, life at that point was. It was pretty grand. It was, you know, lots of successes, as you would hope for teenagers and different things to kind of set the stage. But when I got to Texas and engaged on the mission, I quickly figured out that failure was also an everyday part of life. And it was quite an adjustment for a while because I'm like, well, why? Why am I not having success? Why are we not doing these type of things? And it taught me at that point that life is going to have your failures and your successes, and it's how you respond to those is what makes the difference for sure.

Okay, so, Ben, where did you go after this?

So after the mission, I came back to Arizona, jumped back into school. I had an uncle who was a captain of the Mesa Fire Department at the time, and he said, ward, you need to be a firefighter. And I was like, sure, why not? Why not? Let's give it a shot. And so I got into fire school. I did all my EMS training, I got all my certifications and was ready to jump into the Mesa Fire Department. And I got this opportunity to go to Korea, and I called my uncle and I said, you know what? I'm going to put it off for a little bit because I have this opportunity with my recent EMS training and whatnot, to go do some stuff over in Korea, and I want to go and I want to try it. And my Uncle Pat was like, oh, you know, just shaking, you young whippersnapper. So I put that off and went to Korea and did my stint over there. And again, adventure. Loved it, but came back. And when I came back, I had met Paula, and life started to take me different directions. And I never, after all that training in Arctic, I never, at that point in my life, I didn't go into the fire department. So I married my sweetheart and got into some other things, continued my schooling and started some small businesses at the time that I was poking around with and trying and eventually set, settled on one that spurned into two or three other businesses and the starting gun had fired.

As a business owner and operator, anybody during that time in your life that was really helping you or guiding you along the way.

So one of my mentors growing up, and I mentioned Denny Barney briefly, growing up with Denny T. Dennis Barney, his dad was one of those great mentors in my life, apart from my father. T. Dennis had built successful real estate and development companies and knew kind of obviously that business end of things. And as awesome as my dad and my mom were, they were farmers, they were ranchers, they did business, but they did it in that scope. And T. Dennis exposed me to a whole nother environment of that and was definitely one of my mentors.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and it sounds. I was going to ask when Paula came into the picture, but it sounds like she started to have you questioned some of your choices a little bit more strategically.

Yes, yes. I've always said that Paula is my secret weapon. She's my ace in the hole. Because sometimes I will charge off and ready to march, ready to do it. And she'll like, have you thought about this? Have you thought about this? But having said that, she's never, ever told me no. In that respect, she's always been that cheerleader, that supporter, that helper. No matter what the ultimate decision I make, once I make it, she's all in.

Did you meet her in Korea or back when you came back here?

So I met her at an ASU dance, of all things, over in Tempe. Yeah. And she was introduced to me as, hey, Ward, this is the girl I want to set up with your buddy.

And you said, challenge accepts.

And I met her, and I'm like, yeah, that ain't gonna happen. And so. Yeah. Yep.

Oh, my gosh. So how, at what point in this timeframe do you start having interest in elected office?

You know, I built. Well, at that stage, I was just say it. I was a general swimming pool contractor, which in the Valley, lots of growth, very, very high opportunity. And I spun that into two other businesses as well, where we did service and repair, and then we did remodeling. And I hit about. It was about 29, 30 years old, roughly in there, and these businesses were popping. I had really good people that I had brought on to help do the right things. And so I had some time in my schedule to pursue some other interest in things as these businesses were rocking and rolling. And I had always, at the back of my mind, been really, really interested in politics and those different things. I had read a lot about Abraham Lincoln and some of our founding fathers and just been really interested. And when that stage of my life hit, it was like, well, maybe I'll get involved. So I got involved with some local politics, and I had my Uncle Jim, who had been in the legislature before and just got involved at a grassroots level at that point in time. And a couple years later, Arizona did every, you know, with the census, every 10 years and everything. They did the redistricting and the redistricting happened, and I ended up being in a legislative district where there were no incumbents that were in office. And so being involved the last two or three years at that lower level, I had some people say, hey, well, you've got some time and resources. Why don't you run for the legislature? Sarah Another one of those moments where I probably charged in without thinking about it too much. And talked to my wife Paula, and she's like, hey, yeah, why not? Let's see what happens. And I honestly, even though I ran, I honestly didn't think I was gonna win. I was 32 years old. There were some other good people that were running. And I was just like, yeah, this is a good gate to open. Let's see what happens. And I won. I was sitting at Andy Biggs house on election night. It was his first run for the House of Representatives at that point too, at the legislature. And we're watching the numbers come in and Andy. Yeah, they were winning. I'm like, I think I'm gonna win this.

Wait a minute.

Whoa. What do I do now?

That first term, what was a surprise for you? What did you not expect?

I probably shouldn't tell this story, but when you hit elective office at any level, whether it's at the city or the state or even school board and all the other offices, you begin drinking out of a fire hose. I mean, you just let the water hit you and you try to absorb as much as you can.

I actually appreciate you saying it because I think it is so true. And we have to have a little bit more grace for those first term electeds.

Yeah, absolutely. The learning curve is amazing. And even after a couple years, you're still, I mean, you're on a journey of continual learning at that point. And I was assigned four committees my first term and four committees kind of daunting, especially when it was Health, Education, Human Services and Ways and Means and big committees. It's like, I don't know if the speaker liked me or hated me, but in one of those committees in health, we were hearing a bill that was going to put some people under the funeral board that weren't traditionally regulated by the funeral board. And so there's a company in Scottsdale that does cryogenics. I won't say their name, but people have the opportunity to pay money and if they want to freeze their body or their head or whatever, they can do that at this cryogenics lab. So they were going to be put under this new funeral board. And they were like, well, we don't want to be under that funeral board. So there was a huge debate. And I remember leaving that committee hearing and I won't tell you any more about it, but I remember leaving that committee hearing and thinking, you know, there's things in life that I didn't need to know.

Yeah, sure.

And I wish I didn't know, but now I do. And I can't say I'm better for it.

But now you know.

But now I know. Yeah.

So you. Five terms?

I did four terms. Yeah. Yeah. The term limits are. You can do four separate terms, and then you have to jump chambers if you want to. And at the time, I was serving with Steve Yarborough. He was my housemate in the House, and we were on the same line because of the no incumbent legislators. We both won as freshmen and continued to serve together for four terms. And we literally. People don't believe us when we tell us this, but we literally debated on who was going to run for the Senate in not I wanted to run for the Senate or he wanted to run for the Senate. It was like, you're running for the Senate? No, you know, you're running for the Senate, and things have changed a little bit now with getting your campaign started and stuff. But back in, you know, 2010, 2011, right in there, you could file your committee by February or March of the same year that you were gonna run, get all your signatures gathered, and run. And so we were literally on the floor of the House of Representatives in a committee of the whole debate talking about it. Cause neither one of us had filed for the Senate, and we were still saying, you're gonna run, you're gonna run. And anyway, we literally flipped a coin, and I won, you won. And so I got to choose. And so Steve Yarborough ran for the Senate, and I got to step out of a lot elective office. And I'm super glad that he did. He went on and served another four terms in the Senate, was president of the Senate, did a fabulous job for the state, and did so many things that have set us up for the economic boom that is taking place all around us.

What, as you look back at that time, what are you most proud of accomplishing during your time in office?

I guess, generally the things that I'm most proud of serving in office is, is that when I served, I wasn't there for selfish reasons. I was there for the betterment of Arizona and the betterment of the people in Arizona, and everything I did was with that view. And I like to think that a lot of the policy decisions and things that we set up, trying to diversify our economy and not just be so reliant on home building like we were when we had to mortgage state buildings during the Great Recession and all those different things, but setting up those opportunities for government to kind of get out of the way and let business be business is probably some of my biggest points of pride are the Things that I had a part of.

Anything you wish, you know now that you wish you would have known then.

Oh, Sarah, that's a loaded question.

Where you want to go with that one?

Yeah, I mean, you know, I think.

Do you regret not running for Senate?

I don't regret not running for Senate and I won't definitively say. I get asked often, are you ever going to run for office again? And I made a commitment to Paula when I stepped out. I still had three kids at home when I stepped out after serving for eight years and wanted to be able to make all the ball games and do all those different things. And so I told Paula, he said, if I ever run for office again, I'll wait until our last child's out of the House. And so my last is 17. He's a junior at Castile High School. So he's got one more year left. And so after one more year and he journeys on, hopefully to something, trade school, college, whatever we can get him interested in. You know, I'm not saying I'm going to jump back into elective office, but I will probably look at different opportunities and different things and see if there's anything there where I can help go serve. Because political environment that we're in today, Republican, Democrat, Independent, whatever, whatever. One of the things I prided myself on when I served before was the ability to get different people talking about and trying to build that common ground that we all have as Arizonans. We all have it. And really, the sticky issues that you hear in the media and in other places, those are probably about 10% of what you deal with in all of the legislation that you deal with at the Capitol. And so, you know, I might be thinking too highly, but I don't know, I think that I could help bring some of that back to at least a segment or group of the people down at the Capitol that would like to operate in that space and work together.

Awesome. I was waiting for the official announcement.

Yeah, well, I kind of heard it.

I don't know.

I read between the lines. That's awesome, though.

We'll see the mountains. Call me daily. So, I mean, it's.

Yeah, yeah. Well, they can hear you better on the top of the mountain, you know, that's for sure.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

All right, so what's next? I mean, we kind of hinted on this, but what's in your forecast?

Yeah, no, you know, I'm always looking at opportunities and different things. Working for ASU has just been extraordinary because of the different things that I get little glimpses of things to come. And some of those things, I mean, some of the VR environments where we're teaching these kids and doing some of these different things and creating things is just absolutely outstanding. So I always keep my eyes and ears open. I've got several friends that are also entrepreneurs. One of my really good friends was one of the founders of Massage Envy, and he's always calling me and saying, hey, let's take a look at this. Or, hey, let's take a look at this. And so just looking at different opportunities that aren't just going to be. I mean, obviously they have to be profitable. We want everything to be profitable, otherwise there's no sense in doing it. But looking at things that will be fulfilling while being profitable is kind of the space that I look at things now. And one of those things that I do, I talked about my fire training and how I did all that early on up in the mountains in Alpine, Arizona. I am a reserve firefighter, and so I go up there and work in the summers, and I go on EMS calls, I go on fire calls. I almost went up there last week. They had a fire pop in one of the meadows, and had they not got control of it, I probably would have left the next day to go help. And so I have lots of things that keep me busy, and I enjoy that.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, it's hard.

So you're finally using those skills.

I'm finally. And my Uncle Pat would be proud.

Yeah, that whippersnapper finally got to it.

I appreciated. One of the mottos that you shared with us is put your goals in concrete and your plans in sand. So what are your goals that are in concrete for the next decade?

You know, one of my goals that are in concrete for the next decade is to start another business. I don't know what that is yet. I don't know what that looks like. But keeping my eyes open and my opportunities in front of me, I'll find something. And it might be with a partner, it might not be with a partner. I've done them both ways. And partners can be great, but partners can also not be so great. And so, yeah, that would be one of my goals. And also to. I've got a grandson that's four now, and I love spending time with Wyatt. He is a hoot. And just getting to spend time with him and see him mature and grow and grow through things and is definitely one of the priorities as well.

I love it. You are a fantastic champion for asu. I've loved working with you in that capacity. Thank you for all the knowledge and guidance that you bring to the business community on behalf of education. I think it's so valuable. So just want to say thank you for all you do for the community.

It's a dream job. It really is. I mean, if they're Paula and I kind of laugh about it, but if there was a occupation in my life that I could just say this is a perfect fit for me. This is a perfect spot. I found it.

Yeah.

And it's. That's. Yeah, that's great.

And you can still attend football games.

You know, it's kind of funny, the football games. We get to host, you know, dignitaries and elected officials and stuff at the football games. But, you know, stupid ward here, I still buy my season tickets with my brother. We still have our season tickets and.

So you don't want to give those.

No, no, we won't give those up. Not with all the priority points that we have over the years now. But yeah, there's some good perks in the job. But honestly, just seeing the ability and the anticipation of hopeful change and the different things that are coming to make things or create opportunities to make things better is just really awesome.

I love it. Well, thank you, thank you for your time today.

I've loved for sure and I look forward to hearing about your next business.

Soon to come. I hope looking at a couple of different things right now with the friend that was one of the founders of massage envy and we might jump on one, but we'll see.

All right, awesome. Thank you again and if you enjoyed this, which I know you did, please join our tribe. Subscribe and you'll get those in your inbox just as we release them and you can hear another great story just like today's award. So thank you. Guiding conversations with community leaders. Live Northgate, located in Gilbert, Arizona, offers resort inspired living with modern amenities, spacious floor plans and a vibrant community atmosphere.

Enjoy exclusive resident events like pancake breakfast and Happy hour plus a 24. 7 fitness center, multiple pools and award winning service in the heart of the East Valley.

Valley.

Come check out what it's like to live like no other.