Tim Hovik

Guiding conversations with community leaders.

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Let's.

Let's see where we're going.

That's a possibility.

Well, who do we have with us today?

We have a guest who is a native of Washington State and made his way to Arizona by way of Arizona State University. Early in his career, he joined the team of Valley legend Tex Earnhardt and stayed with Earnhardt for 13 years, eventually becoming the general manager. While he is known for his leadership in business and his philanthropic endeavors, he's also recognized for his relationships with live and local sports including the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona State University, the Diamondbacks, the Phoenix Open Fiesta bowl and so many more. Countless public schools and other organizations. He is the go to guy to get things done. He is Santan Ford. Please welcome Tim Hovik.

Here we go. See, that's why I was thinking he's gonna roll right over you here, Sarah.

Okay, we'll see about that.

That's great.

Thank you. That's a great introduction.

That was nice. I mean, I was checking to make sure it was really me. Yeah.

Pinch, pinch. Well, let's get started with what we call rapid fire.

All right.

Would you rather sing in public or dance? In public.

Oh, it's gotta be dance.

I would love to see that.

What is one of your nicknames?

Teddy. After Teddy Ball game.

Would your 12 year old self think.

You are cool during the day, but probably not at night?

Okay.

Have you ever won a contest?

Yeah, I did. I won a Ford motor. Company was giving away the allocation to a GT and there was about 3,000 entries and I was sitting there and the guy on stage called my name. So I can say I've won something.

That is amazing and a good one at that.

A lot of. A lot of leftover lottery tickets that I have in cash though. Okay.

I can't wait to Hear the answer to this favorite movie of all time. I know it's the Notebook.

I think Jaws.

Oh, okay.

I think Jaws better than the Notebook. I mean, I didn't. It's got to be Jaws. I didn't swim. I mean, I didn't get in a swimming pool for, like, five years. Yeah, yeah. Gotta be Jaws. I mean, it was transformational. And then there's the Meg that. The next level of that one.

Yes. Okay. How do you overcome failures?

You know, I think you recognize failure and you say that's part of success. And I don't know too many people. You read books, you hear people speak that are really successful. And I think all of them intertwine into their message, and they talk about the different times they've failed. And so, you know, I think what I always say about failure is just try not to do the same one over and over. You know, let it be a teaching moment. Let it be something that transforms you and make you better.

Awesome. Fill in the blank. Joy is money.

No, I'm just kidding. Huh?

Are you?

No, I'm just kidding. You know, joy is. It's getting up and being able to do things that you like to do. And I enjoy people. And so I think the automobile business, for me, it's a people business. I've got gosh darn near 300 people that work with me every day. And I've got a whole lot of customers and friends that I've built up in the community that are both friends and customers. And so for me, I think being able to be around people, that's the joy of things. All right.

Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?

You know, the answer will actually probably surprise you. I'm actually an introvert. I put on a pretty good show. I sort of. When I leave the house in the morning, it's showtime, and it's time to be an extrovert. And I have to kind of force myself to do it. Yeah. All day and into the evenings, depending on what events I'm at. And then when I get home, I'm a very generally pretty quiet person. And just kind of. There's a. I watched a thing years and years ago about, like, personality, and it said, you know, kind of like, if you're this, if you do this, you're this and that and so forth. And one of the things that I've, over the years, loved to do is go to the gym with headphones on, get on a treadmill, and run. And it said if you wear headphones at the gym and you get on a treadmill and run. You are absolutely an introvert. I said they're talking about me targeting.

All right, another good question. Do you have a favorite book?

Yes, I do. And I can't think of the darn name of it, but I'll tell you what it was about. There was a. I want to say it's Into Thin Air or Jon Krakauer wrote it and it's a true story. And I think there's so many lessons in it and inspirations in it. It's a true story about climbing Mount Everest, and it was about some climbers who perished climbing Mount Everest and others who got through a terrible storm. And it's. I really enjoy reading nonfiction. Not to say that fiction isn't great, but I enjoy reading biographies. I'm a big history buff. I love history. I intertwine my team, my people, everybody I know, they're like, oh, no, here Tim goes again. Because I intertwine historical sayings or stories into things that I try and tie together. And I guess you'd have to ask the people that are forced to listen to me whether it worked or not. But. But I like reading true things, things that inspire me or historic things that you look back on and go, boy, was that just amazing that it worked out that way. Yeah. Yeah.

That's awesome. Okay, last question here. What is one thing you are grateful for?

Gosh, I just have been so blessed in so many ways. You know, I have a spiritual belief. I'm not the best every Sunday being in one place or church. But I have a deep faith and I really believe in karma, and I believe that karma never forgets an address either way. And I've always believed if you treat people great, it'll come back. And if you don't, it'll also come back. And so for me, you know, that's kind of how I try to live. And, you know, we're just frail human beings. And there are days that I'm probably not very good at it, but we try.

That's right.

We keep trying.

That's good.

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All right, so let's get started talking about the beginnings of where it all started. Going back to the home. Right?

I'm excited. I know so well the extroverted Tim Hovik, but I'm. I'm excited to learn more about the introverted Tim Hovik. So let's start at the beginning.

So let's talk about childhood. What was that like? Where did you grow up? Where it was? What was home like back then?

You know, I was really lucky. I grew up kind of in a middle class family. Grew up in Everett, Washington, about 30 miles north of Seattle. Like a lot of kids, my parents, when I was very young, divorced. I'm the youngest of three, both, all three of us boys, so I'm the youngest brother. But I was really blessed that both sides of the equation, my mom and my dad and so forth, they kind of always. I was never in the middle of anything between them and they kept a cordial relationship. And so I knew really love from both sides. And I think for whatever reason, I always felt maybe growing up first subconsciously and then at some point maybe realizing that I was sort of the middle guy. And it seems like my whole life, you know, I've been the middle guy. I've been sort of the moderator, the, hey, let's come together, let's build a consensus. And I felt, you know, I think going back to my early years of grade school and middle school, I was kind of that middle person between my dad and my mom and always trying to kind of keep the peace in whatever things I could do. And I think, you know, it's funny, those formative years, sometimes those things carry on with you for sure. And I think people that know me in business or know me in politics, or know me just in general, look at me as I'm kind of somebody who tries to bring people together much more than I try and push people apart.

Yeah. It's interesting, when you were growing up, extracurricular activities, what did you do to keep busy?

You know, sports and then sports and then, you know, mixed in a few more sports. But I also, it was. It's funny you don't think about it at the time. You know, I've had people ask me before, you know, and rightly or wrongly, right. You can't really judge yourself. It's you. You look at the same goofy look in the mirror every morning when you're shaving and you know, it's. You just keep smiling. But a lot of people think of me as a leader and I don't know, maybe I am or maybe I'm not. But it was interesting. I always was sort of that, you know, I was never really thought about it. I was the captain of the football team in high school. I was the student body president. In fact, at my high school at that time, nobody had ever been both. I mean, they were kind of the two things that everybody thought of as the poster child of your, you know, your high school.

How many students were in your high school?

There were three. So, no, you barely made that one pool. Yeah, so there, you know, it was a low pool. No, there are about a couple thousand. Couple thousand students. Everett High School. So it's just kind of. I've always been a part of that. And it was funny, I'll tell you, kind of a side story. When I first went to ASU and came down from Everett and I came down here, one of the most appealing things to me was that I was going to be nobody, that I was interesting that I was, because I'd always kind of elevated. And, you know, Everett at the time was 65, 70,000 people, three high schools. You know, sort of. Everybody knew everybody. And, you know, you just. I always kind of felt like, almost like pressure right as a. And I feel that for a lot of the kids today, you know, I think. I think when you're in your later high school time, it's easy to start feeling pressure, like, what am I going to do? What should I do? So forth. And so when I went to asu, I really was looking forward to just being sort of one of 40,000 kids. And what was interesting was it was really good for a couple of years. And then I found, you know, I really miss being a leader. I miss being able to influence and do things and lead people to better things. And I think it was. It was probably useful at that time in my life to learn that lesson and to realize the responsibility that comes from leading and it might not always be there. And all of a sudden to go from being in a smaller town to kind of being one of the people on a pedestal to being one of 40,000, maybe there was a middle ground somewhere. Maybe I could find and carve out some niche in something that I could get back into maybe having some sort of a role as being a leader. You know, God bless, it sort of worked out that way.

Yeah, indeed. Thinking of your parents, which of the two do you feel like you lean more toward? Which one do you think influenced you more to be in that way? Like, what are your parents? Either them leaders, like that, or.

You know, I think I'm kind of probably sort of unique. And those that know me would agree I'm probably pretty close to a split. My dad was. My dad had a little promoter in him, a little P.T. barnum, a little energy Everybody loved my dad. Everybody, you know, and my mom was a grinder. And my mom was a grinder. And you gotta grind. And I think for, you know, not being judgmental towards my parents, probably both of them could have used a little bit more of the other one. You know, opposites maybe attract a little bit. And I think I was blessed to see, you know, all the exuberance that my dad had. There's probably needs to have a little bit of temperament to it, to actually turn it into something that was positive, successful. Not that my dad wasn't successful, but I think my mom grounded me a little more. And I think my mom's 90, by the way. And let me break the news to you, she still grounds me quite often. Yeah, yeah.

Best kind of parent.

Yeah. As they say, she'll always be my mom and I'm always her son. And she reminds me of that quite often.

I love that. Okay, so how do you end up at asu? How does that even become part of the equation?

You know, so it's so funny, so many things that we look at, you know, you look back historically at so many people and it's like, well, you know, and it's just such a chain of goofy events. So in my case, and I'll be very quick, my middle brother's best friend was a three time tennis state champion in the state of Washington. And they were family, you know, their family knew our family. Well, he got recruited to go to ASU to play tennis. So my brother went to what we affectionately call in sports as a directional school. My brother went to Central Washington for a year. Well, the next summer they start talking. Well, if you'd gone to Central Washington and you're talking to somebody who'd gone to Arizona State, it wasn't a big conversation of what am I doing at Central Washington? So my brother transferred. Now he's seven years older than me, so I was in my late middle school years. I came down one spring break and was like, okay, so it doesn't rain 365 days a year everywhere else, you know. Not that it would catch a young lad's eye, but it seemed like the female population at Arizona State University was somewhat attractive. They weren't all wearing ski coats everywhere they went, like where I grew up. And so I was like one of those kids, you know, you always ask kids, you know, in high school and all, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm. I mean, from about the eighth grade on Somebody said, hey, what are you going to do when you get done with school? I said, I'm going to Arizona State. So I had a clear definition of what I was going to do. And so I followed my brother. And ironically enough, before I came to Arizona State, my oldest brother, being somewhat intelligent as well, got involved in the same conversations, came down and visited. So he ended up coming down to Arizona State. So all three of us came. And then a side note, so you roll forward my three best friends that I grew up with in Everett. One of their daughters just graduated from Arizona State. Another one's son is now a sophomore at Arizona State. And the third one's daughter is a freshman at Arizona State. And it's all because they came to visit me when I was going to Arizona State. They were in a position where they're like, okay, well, we can't transfer down. But they always remembered, and they said, when we have kids, they're going to Arizona State. So we've created a little kind of Northwest pipeline, I guess. So down to the university, Just as I expected.

It was all academically based, so perfect. That's just what I thought it would be.

Yes. Never. Never made the dean's list, but I made a few other lists.

Oh, my gosh. Okay. So what do you study at Arizona State?

I studied political science. So my middle brother graduated from Arizona State and went to the University of Arizona. Boo. But he went to the University of Arizona Law School. And so my brother is an attorney. And of course, as younger brothers idolizing their older brothers, I thought, well, that's what I want to do. I want to be an attorney. But I quickly found out I really didn't want to be an attorney. And I think now my brother, he's getting towards the end of his career at some point, and I'm not so sure he wants to be an attorney. I think he'd rather be in the car business.

Right. Grass is always greener, is it not?

Okay, so talk about after you graduate asu, you have a gap year, right? Or how does it work out that you wound up at.

So full transparency. Okay. I always say, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Tim Hovik, the three most successful people in the history of the world that never graduated college. So full transparency. I never did graduate, so I actually have more credits than you need to graduate. But the political science thing just wasn't up my alley, so I switched majors. So now I got. They're not in the right buckets. Right. So I decide, you know what? I'm kind of burned out I'll come back and finish. I need about another semester and maybe, maybe a session of summer school and I'll finish. But I knew some people that had gone into the car business and had made a little bit of money and I thought, you know, that probably sounds like a good thing to do. So I decided I would take some time, you know, take off a semester. So I just walked in off the street to Tex Earnhardt, to his original Ford store in Tempe and was fortunate enough to get hired. Initially, they did not hire me. I went back the next day after they told me they wouldn't hire me. And I said, something's wrong here because I'm just trying to get a job selling cars and. And I don't know why you're not hiring me. Well, it turned out they couldn't verify some deal. I often think if I hadn't gone back the next day, what would my career or life would have been?

Political science.

Yeah, maybe political science. Right. So that's how I got back in. And I just said, well, when I get kind of burned out, I'll go back and get the last bit of credits I need. And I'm still checking. I haven't got burned out yet. So I haven't gone back to issue yet. But I was one of my proudest moments because I love the university, I've spoke to the business school, I support the athletics, I try and do everything I can as a Sun Devil. And so a few years ago, it's probably one of the things that I'm the proudest of is they have an alumni award, but can't be an official alumni if you haven't graduated. And they have a non alumni award for basically, you know, what you've done to represent the Sun Devils and to help the school. And I actually got the non alumni award and that was pretty cool. That's one of the ones that's on the mantle.

That's cool. Yet another contest.

You've won another contest. I won. There you go.

I feel with your professional and life experience, I think that you could probably get your degree so you can qualify for the alumni award.

Well, maybe I can put it next to it then.

Correct.

When I get that. That's a motivation.

Yeah.

I can have bookends.

New goals. New goals for you.

New goals.

But then I would assume he's not having fun in the automotive world.

That he would. Got that.

No, he can do so many things all at once. This is the Tim Hovik.

Okay, well, so let's talk about people that guided you through this process. So when you're going through these school journeys and getting into the automotive industry, you probably have people that kind of helped you out along the way. Yeah.

Yes. You know, I think it's important for. I think that's really the value that we offer the next generation. You know, there's a lot of things that we do that are important, but I hope that there's people down the road probably can't do anything more important than if somebody says, I help them, and they end up in whatever endeavor it is. I kind of grew up around a lot of people that had a similar philosophy, and that is. And we talk about that down at San Tan Ford. We all have different titles, but nobody's any more or less important than anybody else. We just have different jobs that we do. Yep. So I grew up around a lot of people and kind of came up through the ranks that it was really taught and thought, whatever your job is, just be the best of it. If you're. If you're the guy that's the custodian, and that happens to be your position right now, be the best custodian that this company's ever had, and if you happen to be the CEO of this company, be the best CEO and sort of anything in between. And I grew up, kind of was very blessed. It just seemed like that was a. A thread that ran through a lot of the mentors or just people that I looked up to, and some of them probably didn't even realize they were mentors to me. But I just. I grew up. I watched how they went about and how they carried themselves, and it created a level of respect. One of my best mentors was a guy named Ed Trexler. So Ed Trexler was. He was an instructor at Arizona State university for probably 50 years. And Ed Trexler was also, at the time, one of the most famous officials in sports. Ed Trexler refereed Rose Bowls in football, NCAA playoff games. And I really took an interest in officiating because I was like, you know, as much as I thought I was a really good athlete, I was a really good athlete in Everett, Washington. But with 40,000 kids at ASU, maybe not quite so much.

Different mix.

Yeah. But I thought that's a way I can stay involved. And the other thing that was important, I didn't have a lot of cash when I was going to asu. And if you worked the intramural games, they paid you 15 bucks a game to referee these games.

A lot of Bud Light.

And it Seemed worked out well for me, it was a few over the time, so. But Ed had. And I talk about this too, because it sounds like a quick slogan, but it really translates into a lot of things that we do. And in business, I think it's important that you move fast, but it also has to be well thought out. And Ed Trexler had an expression that he said all the time, and that is hustle, don't hurry. We hustle, we don't hurry. Hurry implies chaotic, careless. Yeah, careless. We hustle, we don't hurry. And his other famous saying, and I live by these two sayings, it's so funny, 30, 40 years later is he said, don't compound the drill. Don't make it more complicated than it is. This is the drill. It's 2 plus 2. It's not trigonometry. It's okay that it's 2 plus 2. It can be just as important that it's 2 plus 2. It doesn't have to be complicated to be better. And so I think as you're trying to coach and teach and mentor people, if you can keep things where it's not trigonometry, I mean, that's the end of the day. I say it all the time. Hey, guys, it's basic arithmetic. This isn't trigonometry. Let's execute. And then hustle, don't hurry. Hey, we need to move. We need. The world's evolving. I mean, how the auto business is today versus how it was 20 years ago. Totally different 20 years ago. I mean, it's like black and white TV with rabbit ears. But you hustle, you don't hurry.

Do you? In your leadership. Now, I just. I have a few questions, so I'm going to try to get to these. First of all, let's go back to the kid who walked into Texar and Hard and Tempe many years ago. Many, many years ago. Just kidding.

Easy, easy.

Tell me.

Ever Since I turned 29 last year, you've been all over me.

Tell me the advice that you. If you could give advice to that kid today, what would you have told him?

You know, that's a great question. You know, probably don't ever go into this business. No, I'm just teasing. I think. I think I'd give the same advice to anybody I was with. I'll say it this way. I was asked. A handful of years ago, I was at a big lunch in downtown Phoenix, and I was asked to be the introducer. Is that a word, introducer? It is. Now, can I Use it now. I was asked to be the introducer for Jerry Colangelo. And I know Jerry a little bit. I mean, he could pick me out of a crowd of two. He doesn't know me. Great. But we know each other. And so I remember I was talking to Jerry before I went up and, you know, hey, anything special you want me to say? No, you know, Tim, you know the drill. Da, da, da, da, da. But we kind of got into a conversation, and I knew he had. I was going to speak to some younger students at asu, and I knew he had just spoken to something because I'd overheard a conversation, and I was looking to pick his brain so maybe I could sound smart like Jerry Colangelo. So I said, hey, you know, what was your message to the kids? And he said, you know, Tim, I think the most important message you can tell younger people is that life is a bet, and you're betting on yourself and never be afraid to bet on yourself. And then he walked through all the examples in the Times. I mean, remember, Jerry Colangelo started as nothing. I mean, he worked his way up to be the coach, the general manager, and how many of those guys, oh, by the way, end up owning the team? Nobody. And then started the Diamondbacks owning the team and to do what he did, and he walked me through was all betting on yourself. And he said, that's really what I try and let young people know, is if you believe in something, don't be afraid to reach for it, you know, and it's the old reach for the stars. Say, if you fall a little short, still pretty good. But I always took that away. And I think that's. We're as older people, not old people. Remember that. Older. As older people. I think it's very easy that when we're talking to younger people and they tell us this dream or this ambition or this thing, and it's really easy to go, yeah, that's never going to happen, versus hold your tongue and go, wow, that's really ambitious. Walk me through. What do you see? What do you think? Where are we going with this? And I think that's one of the things that we owe. I mean, how many people, when they came up with the Internet, were sitting there going, oh, wow, that's going to change the world. I mean, whoever told his teacher or his mom or his dad or his. This. They're looking at him like, this is nuts. But what happens? And you look at all the people that. We hear their names all the time, and the gates and the Musks and the Amazon, all these different things. And they're all. I mean, what a bet each one of those was. But it was a bet on the person that had the idea. And I think that's a critical thing. Young people, hey, we're betting on ourselves every day. And I feel like that when I talk to even people my age. Hey, don't forget, when you get out of bed today, you're betting on you. Let's win the bet.

Yeah. So you've taken leadership roles at a national level and you've become a leader for Ford across the country. What are some of your pinch me moments where you still can't believe that this is you?

Well, one of the big ones was last month. I was at. I think I mentioned earlier when we were talking off air, I interviewed Bill Ford in front of like 20,000 people. And I mean, you know, here's the great, great grandson of Henry Ford, and he's the chairman of the board for Ford Motor Company, and I'm Tim Hovik from ever Washington, and sitting there with him. And I think the pinch me moment was when I was done and I walked back to the dressing room where they take off your microphones and all that stuff, and I said the craziest thing about this hole of Venice. I belonged up there. This wasn't by accident. I mean, leading up to it, the whole time I thought, this is crazy. What the heck? But when I did it and I was done with it, Bill and I over the years have kind of created a friendship, and we're talking to each other like I talked to somebody here in Gilbert. I mean, just people. And I think being exposed to some of the things I've been exposed to or some of the blessings that I've been given standing on a field during a game because of my career, they're all kind of pinch me moments. But then the bigger pinch me moment is you go, hey, you know what? Okay, this is. This is what I am. I'm not better or worse, but I put in a long amount of work to get to this point in my career and in my life. Okay? I belong here.

I think that's actually something that we pick up with a lot of our discussions with leaders is the balance between, how did I get here, should I be here? And I belong here. I deserve this. And I think keeping that healthy balance is what makes them good leaders.

Yeah, I wouldn't disagree. And I think it's always a. There are times where I get to do some things where, boy, it's Pretty easy to think you're awful cool. Yeah, I mean, it's real easy. And you got to kind of take a step back and go, no, you're still the same goofball that you looked in the mirror this morning shaved just like you did 20 years ago. But you get these opportunities. I'll tell you a funny thing that kind of ties a little of a lot of what you've asked me together and keeps you a little bit humble, and it also, you know, ties into some of the things with younger people. So a few years ago, I was before COVID whenever that was. I'm not sure, but I was speaking to an honors group down at the ASU Business school and kind of came up and talking about some of the fun things I've got to do and so forth. And this one student raised her hand and she said, I gotta ask you, how many Super Bowls have you been to? And I said, you know, that's a good question, and I'm gonna answer that. But I said, before I answer that, I said, let me tell you what a great question is. She says, okay. I said, how many Super Bowls did I miss? And she goes, well, what do you mean? And I said, I've gotten to go to however many, you know, a handful of Super Bowls. I said, I can tell you I have to think about that. But what I don't have to think about is in my career, I missed seven in a row. I worked. I was the only one that worked. Everybody else wanted it off, and I realized it was an opportunity for me to learn, for me to grow in my career, and for me to elevate above others again. Life's a competition. There's other people that want the next job that I'm trying to work my way up to and get promoted and earn. And I'm not being critical of anybody, but they didn't miss those Super Bowls. I missed them because I knew that at some point, pretty competitive world, what was going to differentiate me? And I'll say it, and I don't mean to say it in the wrong way at all, but none of those people that saw those Super Bowls, none of those people own a Ford dealership today. And for me, I saw that was a way to differentiate. So it was an interesting conversation, and I kind of got a lot of, wow. Never really thought about that. You know, it's always. Everybody's excited about today and all the fun stuff today, but it's easy to forget about how much sacrifice went into it years ago, kind of climbing up the ladder of life.

Well, I'll say. I think you still put in sacrifice. I have a handwritten calendar of his 90 day activities. And I think you're in town like maybe three days at a time before you're off to something else. You have your foot on the gas all the time. How do you sustain that? What does the next decade look like for you?

You know, we'll see. Right. My national role is. It's becoming a little more clandestine. I just within the last few days have ended my time. It was a one year term that I did three years of as the head of Ford's Council for North America. I still am on a lot of things that committees or whatnot that I do. Some have some input, I guess you'd say. Interestingly enough, we're trying to maybe modernize and create a little more uniformity across the world because Ford's a global brand. We're in all the continents. Well, not Antarctica, but, you know, pretty much everything else.

So.

Ironically enough here in a couple weeks I have to go down to Buenos Aires. So I've joked I won't have as many trips as I've had over these last chunky years. They'll be spread out a little more, but there'll be a few more frequent flyer miles involved. I think I have to go to Dubai in January. It's interesting how worldwide and global Ford really is. I mean, we're everywhere. And that's been an interesting piece of learning to talk to dealers from all over the world. And you realize business is so funny. You realize different businesses, different continents. It's always surprising to me that there's a small bucket of things that are unique to that particular business or that particular area. And then there's a really big bucket of, wow, you got the same issues I got. We got the same headaches, we have the same things that are really going good for us. And so it's been an interesting learning journey for me to be more and more exposed to kind of the international scope of this industry after being exposed really to all of North America.

Yeah. Well, I was also hoping that in the next decade we could just use an electronic calendar. But that's a great answer too, Tim.

Well, the way I could respond to that is here comes. I've been known as somewhat of a late adopter when it comes to technology. And if you want to see a grown man go into a fit, just get me talking about all these darn electronic tickets to go to games.

Oh, boy.

I can only imagine there is every vice President of every. Every professional sports team in this town. Arizona State University's athletic department, the Phoenix Open. I don't care who it is. I have voiced my deep concern that they can't hand me a paper ticket. I mean, is it that hard? Could you just print me a paper ticket? Do I really have to have an app? And every one of them has their own app and everyone. One's on text, one's on email, one's on this one's on just give me a paper ticket. Can't we be dinosaurs?

And then here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna volunteer to be your ticket manager, and if you just buy a second ticket to every activity, I will manage your entry.

I'm in.

Perfect.

I'm in. That's much easier than what's going on right now.

Perfect. Sounds good.

She was close to trying to get the tears coming out of you on this one. That was one of her goals. Well, this has been an incredible conversation, Tim. Thank you for joining us. And thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas and your journey that you've been on. I've been really enjoyed learning all this that you've been through and gone through and where you're going. It sounds exciting. I'm glad to get to know you today.

No, it's been. It's been really fun. I really enjoy this. And, hey, we try. I say all the time, we can't change the whole world, but we can change our little corner of it. So we'll just keep pushing that rock up the hill.

There we go.

And I've been really impressed with. With this facility. I mean, this is really cool. I mean, and not just this room that we're doing this in, but just the whole modern moments and everything that's going on here. This is really cool. Congratulations.

Thank you. Life comes at you interestingly for sure.

You know who thought, well, if you.

Enjoyed this show, which I know you did, please subscribe to our Tribe so you can get these in your inbox and learn all these great conversations we have with amazing people like Tim. Thanks for being here today.

Thank you.

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.

Action.