140. Rural TEDx with Jeremy Ratliff

Our guest on today's episode is Jeremy Ratliff from Cavalier, North Dakota, and I invited Jeremy onto the podcast to do a debrief of the recent TEDx event that he hosted right there in Cavalier. Such a special day, such a special opportunity. I was blessed with the opportunity to speak, and it was one of those events that stood out as something that we all could learn from, from his audacity being transplant and never having lived in such a small town, the audacity to just apply for a charter for TEDx in the first place, to the planning, to the way the day unfolded and kind of everything in between. There's a lot of really good nuggets for those of us that want our communities to thrive. And Jeremy, by trade, is a broadcaster, and so he definitely outshines me with vocal quality. So if you're like, gosh, I wish we could just listen to that guy all day, I agree, but there are so many good takeaways, so sit back and relax and enjoy this conversation with Jeremy Ratliff. Well, hey Jeremy, welcome to the Growing Small Town Show.

Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

Super excited to debrief, I guess we'll call it a debrief, the TEDxCavalier event that I was fortunate to and humbled and honored to get to speak at, but I'm just really excited to kind of dive into it from the perspective of you as the person who brought it to your small town and why you were compelled to do that and all the things. But maybe we should start with just quick, easy rundown of who you are in your own words.

Okay, so almost all of my career, if not all my career, I've worked in radio. So that is actually how I got into podcasting a little bit. So I've been doing that kind of locally here as well, but for years been talking on the radio. That's what I do for a living. And my wife and I moved from one city to the other, to the other, to the other, to the other. And finally, during the pandemic, we decided to take the leap and move to small town North Dakota. And that is something that we had talked about previously, but it just seemed like it would not work for at least my career. And because of the pandemic, I decided, you know what, it's fine. My career can take a back seat. We had just moved to Florida. It was very difficult for my wife to find a job as a professor, which normally would be very easy for her, you would think, but with the pandemic happening, places closing their doors and mandates and the whole bit, it was a very stressful situation. So we decided to move to Cavalier, North Dakota. So we're up here in the northeast region of the state. It's been a good experience, but the one thing that I will throw out is I thought my career would have to take a backseat moving here, and it's actually flourished for a couple different reasons. But because of the pandemic, I had already worked remote, so I knew how to do it. So I continued to do it, and my company has allowed me to continue to work remote. So every morning, or every weekday morning, I should be specific, I wake up at 1:30 in the morning. Come into my studio here where I'm talking to you from right now and deliver the news live. So that is my job. But on the other side, one of the things that I really wanted to do locally is really tap into kind of the local community using my broadcasting skills. And there's been a couple ways that I've been able to do that, but one big way has been the podcast. So podcast that I host called Rendezvous Region Today and it kind of allows some of the local stories to have time to breathe. So some of the local stories that may have not been unearthed here, bring people into the studios and hear their background, hear their life stories, the whole bit. So anyways, that's a little bit about me, but you mentioned the TEDxCavaliers. So that, that is something since I've been here, I've been with the Chamber of Commerce shortly after moving here. And working with a team, I kind of plugged in with some local go-getters. So, Kyle Gagner is one friend of mine here who you probably heard speak a few times at the TEDxCavalier. But he's kind of one of those, "Do it. Do it." So, I'll throw out an idea and it's like, "Go do it. Let's try it. Let's try it. Let's try it." So, that TEDxCavalier was something that I was like, "You know what? I'm just going to give it a go." So I applied for it and they eventually got back to me, asked for some more information. I gave them the information that they asked and then they approved it. So it was quickly a, "Oh wow, okay, this has been approved. Now how do we do this?" So that's been kind of— it was exciting because it was just one of those things where, I mean, this town was cavalier. I should say city, it's a city. This city has been just fantastic pulling off big events. Just, it's a very helpful group of folks. And I mean, you even saw it, you happened to be at our first, so we knew there'd be technical difficulties and such. And it's just fun watching people pull together. People switch roles on the spot, people switch out equipment, you know, all the things that we did to keep that event rolling along and keep it just a high-energy, fun event. I honestly feel like that small-town mentality kind of put us in a really cool position to make it a fun event, a really fun event, and something unique to Cavalier because it's never happened here before. So, and I don't— the closest may have been Grand Forks, to my knowledge. Maybe there's one closer.

Yeah, right. Okay, so several things. I'm just gonna go back and kind of pick up the pieces that, that like tripped in my ear. Okay, and we'll talk a bit more about some of that. So did you have any connection to Cavalier, choosing Cavalier as a, as a community?

So I had my wife's side of the family has lived in Cavalier. So when we moved here, we were moving to get close to her side of the family during the pandemic. So we did have the roots of family on her side.

Okay, good. Cuz I don't know that I'd ever asked you that before. So it, and again, it's one of those things like all of us in small towns are thinking like, what would make a person throw a dart at a map in North Dakota and land on Cavalier, right? Or any other town, frankly. Uh-huh. But it makes sense that you had some family there, and that's really cool. I also have to just comment, I love that you shared so directly that you were pleasantly surprised on the career front. I think that's a cool thing to pause and acknowledge, right? I think there's a ton of opportunity for people that have professional-level jobs, and I think as this goes out on the airwaves, once we publish this episode and people are listening to it, I guess my encouragement to anybody that's thinking 'Oh, it'd be so great to move to a small town, but my job won't let me,' or 'My job doesn't.' And then to actually challenge that and make sure that you do a little bit of recon, like you might actually be able to do whatever it is that you're currently doing from a remote place. So it's really cool that that's the case for you.

Yeah.

Where is your company headquartered?

The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. There's several stations Since I've lived here, I've been on the air on several of the stations in different geographic locations of the US.

Does the audience ever hear where you're broadcasting from? Do they know you're broadcasting from Cavalier, North Dakota? It's probably less relevant to some degree for them, but I just was wondering.

Yeah, so on the radio stations that I work for, I am a news anchor, so because of that, I am one of many voices.

Got it.

And both of the markets that I'd anchored for since living here within the company, both are markets that I've lived in for years. So I do have that. I know how to pronounce the cities. I know I can text with friends. I can, you know, there's still so much that I can do in my studio. I can check traffic cameras. Long story short, there's a lot that I can do where I am at. And, uh, we still have in one location that I anchored in, uh, Jacksonville, Florida. So my father-in-law lives there. In Dayton, Ohio, another location, we have a, a ton of friends that live there. So there's definitely that understanding. I mean, we even went back— since I've moved here, I've been to, uh, I've went back to Jacksonville several times.

That's cool. Yeah, that's neat. Okay, what's your role with the chamber? You said you're with the chamber on the— you serve on the board?

Yes, I serve on the board of the chamber. Yeah.

Okay. And again, that's just things I heard that I was like, I gotta ask more about that. Okay, so then when we get to the go-getters, your word for these humans that just pull together and make stuff happen. Yes, Kyle absolutely stood out. And so I want to just make this really clear because I think I come into a town like Cavalier, which I admit I had never been to Cavalier, North Dakota. And you're in my state. We have the same high school mascot along with the same colors, which is a super weird irony. You are the Cavalier Tornadoes and you're orange and black, just like we are the Oaks Tornadoes and we're orange and black.

Yeah.

So I definitely was really excited to come to this city anyway, besides the fact— and we'll get to kind of the meat of the event. But I come into a town and I— and honestly, not even just a town, I would say every room that I walk into, I look for the juice in the people that are there, right? And I actually said that, made that comment to Kyle and then James, one of the speakers, because I said to Kyle, I said, I could tell that you had the juice the second I laid eyes on you. There's something about the way he carries himself and the way that he emotes Like, you can actually just see it on him. And I, I think that is so special and it's so cool. And I'm so happy for you and your spouse that you kind of fell into those kinds of, like, strong relationships right away because I think it makes such a huge difference, right? It makes the transition easier. It makes that whole transition of feeling like this place could maybe be home. It makes it happen so much faster.

Absolutely. And one of the things along those lines is we felt very much welcomed when we visited here right before the move. When I was moving back, so I was driving from Jacksonville, Florida to Cavalier, so multiple day trip driving by myself, and my phone rings and it's Kyle, and he just wanted to get to know me, you know. And it's like, I've never met this human being. In my life. And he called and it was like, "How cool is this?" I mean, nothing makes you feel more welcome than that. And I mean, there's been a lot of really nice inquisitive people that usually they ask me what the big story of the day is, you know, because by the time I'm seeing them, I'm on my second round of sleep for the day and going to get a cup of coffee or something like that. I absolutely love it. There's less traffic, which I know is just like, "Yeah, I'm sure everybody mentions that on your podcast." But One thing that I will point out, because you're talking about roots and, you know, what would make you want to move to a place like Cavalier, and I have a little bit of a different background because I have never, ever, ever lived in a small town. And I can't stress that enough because it wasn't until I lived, moved here that I'm like, this is smaller than even the small that I've been a part of in my childhood, you know, where we go to camp or something like that. And it's one of those things where I didn't realize, and there's a story that I tell, I got off the plane and it might have been a visit, trying to remember when exactly it was, but I remember it's one of those things where it's like you go to the airport in a big city and it can be complete chaos. You know, you're trying to find parking, you're trying to find a ride, you're trying to get there on time, you're checking everything, you get into a long TSA line, you go through, you're hoping your flight hasn't been switched up, otherwise you have to sleep on the floor. You know, flight may be delayed, you're trying to line up a driver, and I get into, might have been Grand Forks, Fargo Grand Forks, it might have been one of the first times I've ever went to an airport and pulled out and there was just no traffic. I'm like, how can I be so close to an airport and have there be no traffic? And I could, it's one of those things where once you get out in that, after being in that like compact scenario, you can just feel yourself relax, which I loved. And I remember when the first time I ever, now I'm gonna pronounce it wrong. I think it's Windermere, North Dakota.

It's Windermere. Yeah, small town.

Yep, Windermere. Okay.

Yeah, that's right near me.

That's the first small town. It may have actually been the first any place I've ever gone to in North Dakota, but at the time it was with my wife before we were married, and we were going to because her family was living there at the time. It was eye-opening for me because it was just— went to bed at night, I remember it was like 9 o'clock or something and the house lights were off It was completely quiet. And I'm like, dead silent. Where am I? I'm used to hearing like sirens and people beeping their horns and stuff like that. But, you know, I, I love it.

I love that perspective. I always love to talk to people that were surprised in a pleasant way because I think we often, you know, again, like those of us that think about this work from a kind of a community development or economic development perspective, often it's common to use the phrase culture shock. And I think that's absolutely what you experienced. But it wasn't a negative culture shock. It was actually a positive. It was a shock to your system to not be overstimulated. It's kind of a little bit of what you're talking about, right? And just like on your, on your nervous system, on your parasympathetic system, like it was welcome to you and for you, which I think is really special. It's funny, I just, just the other day, just on Tuesday, we hosted a fairly big event here. And my friend who's even from Fargo, from Edina originally, we're standing out on the street and he goes, "God, it's just quiet." It was like 8:30 in the morning. So it wasn't like Main Street wasn't bustling yet because our stores open around 9:00. And it was funny because to me I'm like, oh, it's fairly active for this time of day because there's all this— at least people are coming to our facility. But I said, yeah, I love the hustle and bustle of the city. You know, I do. I can feel really energized in that environment, but I too can just appreciate the, the peace and the solitude and the quiet. I think that's really special. I think that's really cool. Okay, so I don't know if you actually answered this, Jeremy, or if I, you know, we can go back to it, but like, why TEDx? Like, why was that the dream? Like, what, where, or how had you interacted with it where you were like, this is what I want to bring to Cavalier?

So kind of from a distance So it was Cox Media Group, the company I work for, when I was a program director in Dayton, Ohio, our company partnered or worked with TEDxDayton to pull that off. And I did, it's funny, full disclosure, I did not make it. I tried out to speak and I did not make it, but I got to see the process for the tryouts and kind of see how that played out. And it's such an interesting thing. And I mean, it is something where it's that, there's just something cool about your community getting together, talking about ideas, filming it, hyping it, loud music, just, you know, the whole bit. And it's like, man, this would be really cool. But one of the things though is in a small town, you want to make sure that you have the right location. And that right out of the gate, I've done some volunteering at the Cavalier Cinema, and Kirby does a fantastic job there running that theater. And super nice guy. I brought it to his attention, you know, what about this? And he gave me a price. We moved along and I just think it's a really cool venue. But at the same time, the one thing that I wanted to do in all of this as well is I wanted to make sure that I didn't just like punt this someplace, you know, like, okay, this is TEDxCavalier, but it's actually in Grand Forks in an arena or something like that. It was like, no, what I wanted, I figured if we put it on Main Street, we put it in the middle of a workday. Number one, when it was lunchtime, people disperse and go to our local places. And then afterwards, we had that chamber event as well. Right afterwards, when people are done, they can walk down the street and go to that. But it's just something about bringing it to Main Street, letting local businesses, you know, enjoy that extra economic impact for the day. And it also, the one thing that I was kind of keeping in mind is if there were local businesses that would be looking for an opportunity for, you know, like leadership development or something like that. And they were looking to send employees to something that if you can put that during the workday, that might be a perfect example for a company to say, oh, well, we have 2 people and, you know, they want to achieve these goals and let's send them to this for a day. So I probably put too much thinking into the event, to be honest.

I don't think so. It didn't— Well, let me ask you this. What would be a why, I guess? Why do you feel like that might be the case? And B, what would be a negative consequence in your mind of too much thought? Or like over— do you feel like you overthought it? Is that what you mean?

I will say taking a step back and like anything else, when you do the debrief afterwards, that's when you learn what worked and what didn't and what to improve for the next year. So we have already done our debrief. And one thing that we have been discussing is the day, because the day and the time were decided by me and my brain, you know, me saying, hey, this could work really well, but not everything works. Let's put it this way, every market is extremely local. If you were to push an event or a product, you can't say, I made this perfect, you should like it because it's very good, because people like what they like. So, and if somebody, and maybe that's something as we're talking going forward, maybe another time would've worked better. Maybe another day would've worked better. There's a lot of conversations about that that we can kind of discuss going forward just to kind of fine-tune that because the funny thing is I just had Hillary Nowatzki on my podcast. She's newspaper editor, but she wears a ton of hats here in Northeast North Dakota. And she was talking about moving here as well and her experience moving here. And she talked about how busy she was here. I guess she thought she would be a little bit bored moving to a location like this. And she's so busy and it's the same for us. And I have to keep that in mind when planning events because there's always something. There's always a wrestling competition where parents are going out of town. There's a track a track meet, a cross-country meet, a basketball game, a parade, fireworks, you know, there's always stuff happening. And it is a challenge trying to find that date because all it takes is picking a date that somebody else has. And number one, you may be taking people from them, and number two, you may not be maximizing the amount of people that you can get for your specific event.

Yeah, I get it. Well, and that's just it. Scheduling. I think that's one of the eternal challenges of any sort of event planning. Like there's all the other things that come later, but I love that. I think that's so awesome. And I mean, that's partly what I'm really passionate about too, is just thinking of interesting and unique ways to give people opportunities to things that they normally would have to leave town to get. Yeah. That's a passion of mine, right? It's just thinking about how do we bring those things to our main street and then we can bring local people from around us here versus all of us leaving. To get access to some of that stuff. So it was for me, when you called and asked if I would speak, I mean, it was like an easy, immediate yes for me because the theme of TEDxCavalier was Small Towns, Big Ideas. And I was like, if there was ever a human built for this, it's like me because this is what we do. But I truly was so impressed because the production of it all and the cinema was awesome. I thought it was really, really cool that it was this old theater and It had a really— I loved the vibe of it, right? And then again, from a speaker's perspective, your team, everybody that was there working on it, you really could just feel that collective sense of we're all in this thing together, like true commitment on the part of everybody, which again, always so fun to see. But for me, the biggest reason I wanted to have you on is just to talk about the fact that like it's an audacious thing to go after. It just is. You know, you decided that there was something that fit, you know, the specific things you were hoping to bring to town, and you had the audacity to And I just think it's so cool, Jeremy. I really do, because we do have TEDx in North Dakota, but they're in Fargo. Didn't know if Grand Forks had one. Apparently they do. Bismarck has one, and I'm not sure if Minot maybe, maybe does. I don't know that for sure, but I mean, we're talking only a couple of places. And so you were the first one that went for rural, and now it's yours. I mean, it's really kind of yours, and I think that's really, really, really cool. When you think back on the day, what was your favorite moment? Do you have a favorite moment of the day or even a standout moment where you just were like, oh, this is why I did this kind of a thing?

There were a few moments that I absolutely loved, but there was a comment— this may be way out of left field— so the first half of the, the first half of the event, we had the technical difficulties that we had anticipated I don't want to say we anticipated, but we had practiced, you know, in advance, and we were ready to go, and everything was working fine. And then some, you know, you get a lot of people, a lot of cell phones, some technical difficulties all in the room, and some stuff popped up, and we went with it, and we kept going, and we, we kept it going, and everybody was having fun, and everybody was jazzed up. And of course, with some of us being a little bit of perfectionists about this type of thing, when everybody vacated for lunch and a few of us were left behind. It might have been Kyle, Bill, and myself, and we were talking about the, "All right, what do we have to do? We're regrouping." Almost like football game at halftime. You're like, "Okay, well, we're regrouping and we're gonna do this and we're gonna do this and what about this?" And, you know, I don't know if we were second-guessing or something like that, but one person stayed behind from lunch. And it was a lady sitting towards the back row and she made a comment, you know, something positive, but it was along the lines of, this is what we do. This is small towns. We are working together to make this happen. And, you know, and I'm, I'm putting words in her mouth, but it was some, it was that kind of a vibe where it was like, this is us. We're all working together to pull this off. And I mean, that's, that's kind of what you have to do. There's budget limitations. There's, limitations with being able to bring people in from other parts of the state. And I will say, well, that was quite a challenge. I'm not gonna lie, that was quite a challenge. But on the other side, I cannot stress enough the importance of surrounding yourself with positive people, number one, but problem solvers. And my team, Chris Berry, Kyle Gagner, Rachel Morrison, Gwen Zorn, Pastor Bill Crosby, and Dawn Mapp. I know you know Dawn. They were massive problem solvers, but what made them very unique, and I cannot stress this enough, was I would go to meetings prepared with 2 or 3 things that, you know, Rebecca, I'd be like, "Oh my gosh, I've never done this before, and I forgot about this one thing, and I forgot about this other thing, and I didn't anticipate this." And I'd come with a list. And it was so fun because it'd be like Rachel or Chris or somebody in the room would raise their hand and be like, well, actually I did that already.

Yeah.

Well, actually we do have this, you know, and you're just like, are you kidding me? Like, this is amazing. Like, and I would leave those meetings. I mean, we've all been to meetings like that where you leave and you're like, do I have to postpone this event? And instead I would leave going, I can go hang out with my family now, you know, because it was like we just, we just like solved all the world's problems in that 1-hour meeting. And I mean, even after that first event, I mean, this team is a machine and you could tell already it was like, all right, debrief time, let's go. Here's what we're looking at for the next one. And we already have some really good ideas for that.

So that's so cool. And I think I love that because again, I As people, you know, the people that are gonna listen to this, Jeremy, I want them to be thinking of course about what an audacious thing for their community might look like. And I think this, this is, it is instructive because it's not just people that are willing to help. That's, that's obviously we need people willing, but like you said, people that are positive and people that are troubleshooters, like that's just their nature. Like used to being maybe put in situations where things, where they have to figure stuff out. Cuz everything is figureoutable. Generally speaking, but it's much easier if you have people that are wired to do so.

Yes.

I just think it's really cool. Let's talk about, as you look ahead to what's next, if there's one big thing that you think you'll do differently next time, what might that be?

Let me think. Obviously, preparation is the biggest. So that the one thing that I was in— and shame on me, I'm going to be the first to say it— but one thing that I was not anticipating was the amount of local business support that we got. So in my mind, you know, this is a new event. Can we sell people on a new event that has never came here? Especially one which early on we were getting questions about, what is it, what is it, what is it?

Right.

And so you budget accordingly for these events. And the mass outpouring of sponsorship support from local businesses was over the top impressive. So you factor that in, I mean, if we get the same support for next year, that, that gives us a little bit more flexibility in the planning early on, as opposed to, you know, the days before, the day before saying, Oh my gosh, we are right on target, if not in a better spot with the budget. So I would say probably getting the ball rolling a little bit earlier in, like I said, a lot of the planning. So like I pick the date, I pick the time. We may have fine-tuned the time a little bit in the group, but for the most part, it was a, you know, a day that I picked in advance. And I believe I kept it the same from what I initially submitted to TEDx. So, with that being said, let's say hypothetically we do it same time next year or around the same time next year. We have all this, and I know that's risky to say, we have all this extra time to plan because, you know, that makes you want to procrastinate. But we do have all this time and we also know where to move things early on because we were all I don't want to say figuring it out as we go along because that sounds like we didn't know what we were doing. We all had specialties in this and there were people in this group that have, lucky for me, that have pulled off a number of events here in the local community, very successful events. It was kind of one of those things where it's like, hey, we have all these really cool events, Off the Charts Music Festival is one that when we first moved here and I first went to it, I went and I was like, I cannot, like, I can't stress to you enough, I could not believe that that was in my city here. I'm like, this is such a big event. These are big name Christian bands that are coming here to play. This is such a great experience. And, you know, I thought it would be cool. Like, hey, what if we could bring another one in? And this hopefully, you know, hopefully long term can be another one.

Right? That's, oh, that's so cool. I think it's cool to imagine being the kind of community that's known for pulling off big events. I mean, because it really is like, it is massively challenging. I've done and been a part of lots and lots and lots of events over the course of my career and I could see it. And of course that also makes me a different, I look at things through a different lens. You know, like I'm, I was there as a speaker, but I wasn't just there as a speaker. I think about all of it. I think about the community and I think about, I think about you and your team and I just kind of watched all of that. It was really, it was super, super special. You know, so you, you were talking about resources and things that were hard to get in. What was one of the hardest things to get from a support or from a vendor or supplier standpoint? What was one of the toughest things to procure?

Yeah, so one of the things was the digital screen. So that, that was one where— and now keep in mind, I have never done that, but we have done it for— I say we, not me, but we've had digital screens here in the market for for off the charts, of course. But that was one where with our budget initially, early, I mean, you saw the emails coming from me where it was like, there was a time where it was like, hey, we may be able to have this. And then, okay, we're probably not going to have slides. And then, okay, we're going to have slides now. You know, we totally can do this because we were able to find a vendor. I mean, because previously I believe we found a vendor, it's just the day didn't work out. And then I think it was Kyle who was able to kind of, you know, crunch time line up another vendor and they came and did a fantastic job. Super easy to work with, super flexible. But anyways, that was probably one of the biggest challenges. But you know, there is a runner-up and we ended up not doing it. And that was the big TEDx letters. On the stage.

Sure.

So yeah, instead we did, uh, that cool banner. But the, the TEDx letters, that was another thing where it was like, oh, we need to have a bigger budget for that than I would have guessed. Yeah. So, but luckily Kyle came through with a really good banner, and I'm like, okay, this, this is, this is good. And honestly, the banner worked out really well for the, the specific venue that we were holding it in, right?

I would give anything to see that budget, like, just because I'm so fascinated by it. And again, There's so many things that the people that'll listen to this episode can take away from this. And I think to not underestimate your local business support is a good takeaway for all of us because I think we just need to remember that local businesses want to see cool, interesting things like this brought to our communities, especially if they have a Main Street business. And by the way, the lunch, like that whole experience was, was so great. And the, the hilarious guy at the, and I, oh, I apologize, you maybe will remember, you'll know the name of it. It's just like two doors down.

Is it the Blue Fox?

Yes. Yep, yep. Thank you. The Blue Fox.

Okay, it's a great place.

It is. It's an amazing place. And the gentleman working behind the counter, I literally stood there and watched him just try to deal with a volume of people that he normally wouldn't have on any given Tuesday, right? Or Thursday. And so, yeah, I just stood there and I kept saying like, you're killing it, you're really holding it together. And he'd look at me and sometimes be like, thank you, I like, I really need that. But it was just, it was just so fun to see because again, like, it, the community, your community is so similar to mine in size and kind of makeup. And there was things that felt very reminiscent of home to me. So the whole experience for me was just truly, truly quite delightful. So on, on the TEDx thing, any, any last thoughts or comments? Again, thinking about the fact that the people that listen to this show tend to be people that just want to do great things for their communities. So any final takeaways or words of wisdom having hosted your first one?

So, this is going to sound like complete cheese. I love cheese. And like a cat poster saying, "Hang in there and do positive things." But honest to goodness, and this is why two people, Pastor Bill Crosby and Kyle Gagner, two friends of mine, it's good to surround yourselves with positive people that are go-getters. And they're both the, anytime I throw out the, "Hey, I have this wild idea." Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. You should do it. Go do it. And then a week later, have you done it? A lot of this stuff you just have to do. I mean, it would be like, let's talk about the podcast world. It's like, oh, think of big interviews that you've gotten. How many of them were you like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this person did this. You know what I mean? Like, oh, I can't believe I got this guest. This is so cool. Well, you have to ask. And what are they going to, you know, it's like they may say no, they may not, but unless you get out of your comfort zone, unless you try things out, and I mean, That was with TEDxCavalier. I had the idea and I was like, "I'm going to give this a try and see if we can do it. See if we can get approval." We got approval and it's okay. Let's see how we can pull this off. But this is just, I'm sure anybody from my community here that is listening to this may have like 900 things popping into their head where it's like, Oh, what about the local gas station that was just purchased and is being renovated by the Gagners? And what about this building that, you know, this person bought and, you know, was redoing X, Y, and Z, or this group that brought this into town? There's a lot of that happening in Cavalier.

Yep.

So, there's enough of that positive vibes, but you gotta find, you know, in your community, you gotta find those people. And if you can find those people, I mean, it's like anything else. You surround your people with no people that are like, "Eh, bad idea. Eh, here's what, whatever." All it takes, I mean, we're all tired, we're all super busy, and all it takes sometimes is a, "That won't work," and you're like, "Oh good, I won't waste my time." But when you have people saying, "That'll work and I will stand by you," I mean, that is the best.

And remind you. Yeah, like you said, call you the next day and be like, "Hey, you said you were gonna do this. Did you do it?" I think that's so, I think that's so, It's so, it truly is so special because like an event of this scale, you can't do that. You can have the idea all you want, Jeremy, but like you're not gonna pull that thing off by yourself. You know that. And so it really is.

Oh no.

So important. You know, you just imagine if any one of those particular people hadn't been involved, how different it would feel, how different it would've been.

Oh my goodness.

So I just think it's, it's such a great reminder that humans can make all the difference in the world. And we sometimes, we have to be a little bit judicious about it. Because we really have to protect— I think we have to be thoughtful anyway, not protect ourselves, but yeah, be thoughtful about who we spend a lot of time with, who we let in, and who we let kind of guide or affect or influence us. Yeah, it can be super challenging. So it was such a great day, such a fun event. I can't wait to see the recordings. Do you have any notes on that? Like, what's happening with that?

So that is on my plate right now. So the final production is complete, and I believe the— and don't quote me on this, but I believe the next step then is submitting to TEDx at this point. So that is the project that's on my plate right now. But as far as all the video production, that is done to my knowledge.

Cool. Very cool. Yeah, that's super exciting.

So we're getting there.

Yeah, you're getting there for sure. So we will be sure to link up your podcast, The Rendezvous Region, today. We'll make sure that everybody gets access to that. And then of course, we're going to share your TEDx. We'll share your videos and share the post-production like crazy once it's made available and open to the public. But thank you. Thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of that day. It was truly special. And also just showing just exactly what we're made of in communities like Cavalier. It's amazing.

And you crushed it. You did an excellent job. So thank you for being a part of it as well. You were a very important part of that, the entire production and the entire day. And once again, I can't thank you enough. So thank you so much.

I was so happy to be a part of it. And we'll just keep cheering you on from this tornado. We'll be cheering on you and all of your tornadoes. I'm always in your corner, Jeremy. Don't forget, I'm always here.

Love it. Thank you so much.