MEDA

This week on the podcast we hear from storytellers of a corporate Tell Us Something storytelling workshop that I hosted for MEDA - Montana Economic Developers Association. Join these four storytellers for stories of work, and the importance of taking an active role in your local community through your vocation.

Transcript : Live Storytelling with Corporate Workshop participants MEDA

00:00
welcome to the telesumming podcast i’m
00:01
mark moss they had just been
00:04
shafted by the company that had bought
00:06
their company
00:07
so i was buying them their beer
00:10
ironically
00:11
in a couple of years they would develop
00:13
a fully automated
00:14
company that without employees doing
00:16
about four and a half million dollars a
00:18
year in sales
00:20
today we feature four storytellers who
00:22
worked hard during a tele-something
00:24
corporate storytelling week-long
00:26
workshop
00:27
members of the montana economic
00:29
developers association
00:30
or media shared their true personal
00:33
stories from their homes and offices
00:35
during a corporate workshop hosted by
00:37
tell us something
00:38
the storytelling workshop helped people
00:40
harness the power of personal
00:42
storytelling
00:43
to talk about the work that they do
00:45
every day
00:46
why is that work important to them why
00:49
that work is important to those that
00:51
they serve and why that work is
00:52
important to the communities where they
00:54
live
00:54
and work across the state of montana
00:58
big thanks to our title sponsor the good
01:00
food store and thanks to our enduring
01:02
sponsors cabinetparts.com and blackfoot
01:04
communications
01:05
special thanks to our champion sponsor
01:06
truefood missoula and huge thanks to our
01:09
blue ribbon sponsor
01:10
joyce of tile the media members who are
01:14
sharing our stories with you today
01:15
know that it is with our stories that we
01:18
can reach people
01:19
with our mission they left the graphs
01:22
and pie charts at the office
01:24
they saved the data points for later our
01:27
storytellers today
01:28
used their true personal stories to
01:30
share the story of the important work
01:32
that they do
01:33
in communities across montana around 20
01:35
or so media members
01:37
joined me every day for a week during
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our two hours every day
01:41
i taught them what i know about
01:43
storytelling we talked about techniques
01:45
and structure and helped each other
01:47
develop and improve our stories
01:49
i tailored the workshop specifically for
01:52
the media members
01:53
today four of those workshop
01:55
participants will share their stories
01:56
with you
01:57
we did the workshop over zoom and a
02:00
couple times there were
02:01
internet connectivity issues so you’ll
02:03
hear some of the participants drop out
02:05
a few times usually a telesumming event
02:09
is focused on a theme
02:11
we hadn’t discussed a theme for these
02:13
stories but listening to them
02:15
a theme emerged we can say that the
02:17
theme is
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why am i here or why i do this call it
02:22
passion
02:23
whatever you call it you’ll see these
02:25
storytellers are personally bonded to
02:27
the work that they do
02:28
and that their passion really comes
02:30
through in the stories that they share
02:32
our first storyteller is gloria o’rourke
02:35
gloria
02:36
has been a meta member since 1995 and
02:39
self-employed since 2003.
02:41
she and her business partner mike share
02:44
an office and have been married for 44
02:46
years
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mike and gloria enjoy spoiling their
02:49
four grandsons and then returning them
02:51
with sugar highs
02:52
to their parents we call gloria’s story
02:55
my desk do you know
02:59
how many sticky notes are in a pack
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we all use them but do you know there
03:07
are 100
03:08
sticky notes in a pack i go through
03:12
about a pack a week
03:15
why i’m self-employed
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that means i’m my own boss right
03:23
wrong i have a contract and i work for
03:26
meda
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which stands for montana economic
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developers association
03:32
meda has a membership of about as of
03:34
this morning
03:35
253 people and that means
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i have 253 bosses
03:43
so at my desk here at my desk i like to
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think of myself as the communication hub
03:49
maybe a federal partner or a state
03:51
partner has an urgent program
03:53
update and they’ll send it to me gloria
03:54
can you shoot this out and
03:56
or maybe a media member will send me
03:58
something saying hey we’re
04:00
putting on a training or oh we have this
04:02
to offer small businesses
04:04
would you shoot it out so i send it out
04:06
or maybe i’ll get a phone call
04:08
and it’s a business person saying i’m
04:10
trying to start a business in bozeman do
04:12
you know who i should contact
04:14
and so i look at myself as kind of the
04:18
communication hub
04:19
things come in i send them out right
04:22
but i’m not always at my desk one of my
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favorite things to do
04:27
is what’s called immediate community
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review
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um once how it works is a community will
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invite me to in
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and i’ll first start with a small team
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of maybe just three or four of us and
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what we do
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is we listen we listen to a community
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for
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hours we listen to them share about
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what’s important to them
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what problems they’re having what
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challenges they’re having
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and we summarize everything that we
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heard from these hours and hours of
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listening
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then we go back to our desks and i start
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tapping the shoulders of some of those
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253 bosses
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and they say hey i’m this this town
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needs help with small business finance
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or this
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town needs help restoring a historic
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building or
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this town needs help with manufacturing
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or this town is looking for a co-op
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for a store so then we work together
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to help that community take action on
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their action plans
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a perfect example of this is the
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community of lockwood
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several years ago big sky economic
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development
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and beartooth rcnd invited a small meta
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team to come in
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and listen to lockwood and so we
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listened
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and we listened and we heard three main
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pretty heavy burdens the community of
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lockwood had
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um one was they felt like they were the
05:51
ugly stepchild
05:52
of yellowstone county they felt their
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voice was not heard
05:56
another one was they realized they had a
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large dropout rate
06:00
that they had these kids that grew up in
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lockwood went to school in lockwood and
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then suddenly
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it was time to go to high school and
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they were shuttled to different schools
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in the big city
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the third major problem they wanted to
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address and it was quite tragic
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was they had several deaths in their
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community
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because people had been killed there was
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no
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safe streets no safe sidewalk no good
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lighting
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for the people to walk on and so
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the team after we listened we came back
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to our desk we tapped shoulders of those
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253
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media members we worked again with big
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sky eda and beartooth and we held a huge
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town hall meeting
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and as a result of that our
06:50
our media members bringing their
06:52
expertise to the table and
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local people of lockwood stepping up
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i’ll never forget this young dad stepped
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up
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and he said i want my boys to be safe
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when they walk to school
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so the people of lockwood came together
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and
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they really went to work on their action
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items so
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a few months ago we were back to
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lockwood and we wanted to hear what
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happened
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and what we learned is lockwood has
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incredible momentum
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now they no longer feel like the ugly
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stepchild
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they through working through legislators
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they change state law so that they now
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had the right to vote onto whether or
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not to build a high school in lockwood
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and they now have their own high school
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and
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best of all they were the first
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community to pass a levy
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to pay for sidewalks and streetlights
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and so this huge momentum monumental
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shift has happened in lockwood
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so back at my desk with my
07:52
my oceans of sticky notes
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i’ve realized something and that is that
07:58
there is no self
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in self-employed i can’t do it on my own
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and i like to think you can’t do it as
08:07
well
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without me and so working together with
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my 253 bosses who really aren’t bosses
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you are really my partners
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working together we are making a
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difference in our communities
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and building a great place in montana
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for people to work
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play and live thanks gloria
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to learn more about the montana economic
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developers association
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visit medamembers.org
08:36
our next storyteller is a world traveler
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from a small town heather mccartney is a
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fifth
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generation montanan she works as an
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outreach and consumer education
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specialist
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with the non-profit child care resource
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and referral agency
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family connections her passions include
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hunting for a good decaf
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long reads and connecting people to
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great resources
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she lives in shoto montana with her
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conservation officer husband
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her artistic and whimsical daughter five
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freeloading chickens
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three cats and a dog named bear green is
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her favorite color
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we call heather’s story family
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connections
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i am driving down 89. the sun crests the
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eastern horizon
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and the light is blinding so i pull my
09:22
visor down push it to the side
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no need to start a migraine this early
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in the day
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light flickers off the refuge waters as
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i look in my rear view mirror
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my little passenger looks dreamily out
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her window
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look mama i see a dragon maybe a dog
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i follow her gaze into the puffy clouds
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uh-huh i see what you see i also see a
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blue heron fishing
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over there do you see it yes and
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pelicans too
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she explains her head back i’m tired
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mama
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she murmurs me too sweetheart
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why don’t you pull your pillow over to
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the door and have a little nap
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she settles herself against the seat
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ponytail flopping over as she leans into
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her pillow
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and pulls up her blanket
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i count myself fortunate to live here on
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the crown of the continent
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our little bungalow sits in a tree-lying
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town in the shadow of the rocky
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mountains
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the backbone of the world the
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front actually known as a cornucopia of
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flora and fauna
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on a given day you’ll see silver-tipped
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grizzly bears
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grazing on black choke cherries next to
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freshly moan hay fields
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next to mountain streams that water an
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otherwise arid plain
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in the town of shoto the deer regularly
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grazed down my sunflowers
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and the elk bugle at the city limits
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neighborhood children play from house to
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house the schools are top notch
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and as garrison keillor would say all
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the kids are above average
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60 miles later i pull into a quiet
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neighborhood
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slowing to go over a speed bump i see a
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lively elementary school around the
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corner
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and gaze wistfully at a for sale sign on
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a modest home
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i stop as claire gathers her backpack
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and hops out
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i meet her on the other side of car we
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kiss through our masks
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love you mama love you too zugs i say as
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i squeeze her in a hug
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i climb back into the car and stare at
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her back
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and she heads into someone else’s
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capable hands
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15 minutes later i pull into the parking
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lot in my company designated space
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as i turn off the engine i feel the heat
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of the day coming on
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i hate my commute i hate all the hours
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lost to transition when i’d rather be
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relaxing
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catching up with friends heck even doing
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chores
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anything but sitting in a car my back
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and legs getting tight
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i hate that clara strapped to a seat
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belt for those same hours rather than
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running with the sun on her hair or
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climbing into a treehouse to exchange
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secrets with friends
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i especially hate that because my
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commute to child care is so far
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and high quality care is so expensive
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that i will have nothing to show for my
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eight hour day plus
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two and a half hours of travel my entire
12:16
paycheck will have been cashed into
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making sure my daughter
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has great care and learning while i work
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yet i’m doing exactly what i love
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i’m an influencer for positive change
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change
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i deeply gratified helping people solve
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problems and communities rally around
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solutions
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like you there really isn’t much i
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wouldn’t do or haven’t done to help
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these good developments along
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i mean you know the drill cups of coffee
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at community tables
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op-eds to regional papers sitting on
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boards
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volunteering for anything on a saturday
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and then biting your tongue as a group
12:51
moves in a different direction
12:53
leaving your hard work in the dust like
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beer cans after a rodeo
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but this this depleting of my personal
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resources to care for my child
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so that i can help other families and
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communities care for their children
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this is pulling at me like attention
13:09
wire fascinating me to two worlds
13:11
professional and personal sitting here
13:14
in the august heat reminds me of the
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pressure cooker i’m in
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i desperately want claire to have a
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carefree childhood full of rich
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experiences
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and i’m also eager to work to help solve
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montana’s child care crisis
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i’m educated and employed and i’m at
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risk of leaving the workforce
13:30
i live in a childcare desert and i am
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digging wells for other communities and
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their child care oasis
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last night’s call from a panic provider
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wondering how she’ll finance next
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month’s expenses haunts me
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families are desperate for child care so
13:45
they can work uninterrupted
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yet with pandemic variables many have
13:48
pulled the kids home
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taking precious cash flow with them if
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she can’t put together financing
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she’ll join the 10 that have closed
13:56
their doors this year
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adding to the already 40 shortage we had
14:01
in the state
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last week’s blowback from a county
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commissioner’s meeting asking them to
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allocate funds to develop child care
14:08
that had me ready to quit hot tears
14:11
stream down my face why don’t people
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want to support families
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would they rather not have staffing at
14:15
hospitals kids in schools
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volunteers or even talk tax dollars
14:20
towards infrastructure
14:22
what the hell am i doing fighting for
14:24
others that they may enjoy
14:26
high quality affordable and available
14:27
child care for
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which i’m not attained for myself this
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is fraying the very fiber of my being
14:37
i am driving down 89 as starlight
14:39
illuminates the last of the night
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grazers
14:42
my view is framed by oncoming headlights
14:45
in the highways
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still slumbering at home clara dreams of
14:48
her day at school
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full of friends and learning her dad and
14:51
dog will walk her down the idyllic fall
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boulevard
14:54
kicking leaves and stopping to pick up
14:56
her favorite rocks
14:57
and what am i doing like you i’m going
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to work
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thanks heather to learn more about
15:05
family connections visit
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familyconnectionsmt.org
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russ fletcher is an old retired guy who
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escaped from san francisco
15:14
25 years ago to live in missoula with
15:17
his retired attorney wife
15:18
alexis they have two children his son
15:21
lives in san francisco and works for
15:23
google his daughter has
15:25
come home to missoula from l.a and works
15:27
for hulu
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russ spends a lot of his day looking at
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a computer screen
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drinking coffee and pondering the future
15:34
of montana
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russ calls his story how i found my last
15:38
best job in a missoula dive bar it was a
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dark and stormy night 20 years ago
15:44
there was a waiter listlessly clearing
15:46
dishes from the table where
15:48
the 10 or so people that i invited to
15:51
dinner
15:52
had finished eating our greasy burgers
15:54
and drinking bud light
15:56
i’d invited them there to ask a single
15:58
question
15:59
something that i’d found since i’d moved
16:00
from silicon valley it was what the
16:02
prison sheriff on cool hand luke stated
16:04
when they dragged paul newman back
16:06
from an escape attempt what we’ve got
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here
16:09
is a failure to communicate why didn’t
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montana communicate
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we did in san francisco it was just me
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and
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and we’ll call them bud and lou we’re
16:20
left drinking our last can of bud
16:23
there probably was a wet dog laying by
16:25
that back door
16:27
they had just been shafted by the
16:30
company that had bought their company
16:32
so i was buying them their beer
16:34
ironically
16:36
in a couple of years they would develop
16:37
a fully automated
16:39
company that without employees doing
16:41
about four and a half million dollars a
16:43
year in sales
16:45
they would put a phone in their little
16:47
tiny office on higgins
16:50
that would go to the phone tree of all
16:51
the services
16:53
and bud had to go in occasionally to
16:55
sign checks
16:56
and sometimes he’d like to pick up the
16:57
phone so one day he’s in there and the
17:00
phone rings he picks it up and he hears
17:02
hi
17:03
my name is susan smith and i’m from and
17:05
let’s call it giganto corporation
17:08
he immediately slammed down the phone it
17:10
rang again
17:12
hi my name is susan smith and i’m from
17:14
gigento
17:15
he so calmly said thanks susan we’ve
17:18
already got all the computers we need
17:20
and he hung up the phone the phone rang
17:23
again immediately and he picked it up
17:24
now he heard in a rush
17:26
hi my name is susan smith i’m with
17:28
digento and we want to buy your company
17:32
time they got better attorneys and sold
17:34
it from mid-eight figures
17:36
now back to that uh back room with those
17:39
soon-to-be multi-millionaires
17:41
we’d had a few beers and we’re getting
17:43
down to the nitty-gritty
17:44
we’d all come from techy backgrounds in
17:46
silicon valley
17:48
and in that in that environment i had
17:51
always told my employees
17:52
please get out of the office at least an
17:55
hour a day
17:56
you have to get out you can’t just sit
17:58
in your office you’ve got to see what’s
18:00
going on
18:00
who are new competitors who might we
18:02
collaborate with
18:04
what’s the new technology i also had
18:07
told them that if they were over 45
18:09
i wanted them to find a 25 to 30 year
18:12
old
18:13
mentee not a men excuse me a mentor not
18:16
a mentee
18:18
someone who they could work with someone
18:20
who they could teach
18:21
who could teach them about what tensions
18:22
and technology were happening
18:24
they had to realize that it was they
18:26
were not the future
18:28
it were the it was the younger people
18:30
it’s all
18:31
and still is all about networking the
18:34
three of us lamented the fact that
18:35
missoula
18:36
wasn’t talking to bozeman wasn’t talking
18:38
to billings
18:39
wasn’t talking to great falls etc it
18:41
seemed like they all thought each other
18:43
was competing
18:44
it was the same for montana’s companies
18:46
they weren’t talking with each other
18:48
to see whether it might be collaboration
18:50
um
18:51
it wasn’t it wasn’t montana it was the
18:54
world how could i address this
18:56
they both looked at me in very calm
19:00
and humorous gazes said why don’t you
19:03
just build a website
19:05
i was running a company at the time but
19:07
i said hey let’s give it a shot
19:09
so i knew two guys they were brilliant
19:11
techies john and steve they founded mod
19:13
west
19:13
which was an incredibly successful isp
19:16
with i think clients in 56 countries
19:18
they agreed to build a website that
19:21
would become the montana associated
19:23
technology roundtable
19:24
matter because the economy does matter
19:28
i’ll never be able to thank them enough
19:31
john’s now
19:31
in uh truth or consequences new mexico
19:34
running a brew pub
19:35
so there is the career after technology
19:39
the site started modestly i started
19:41
holding monthly roundtables which i’d
19:42
done in silicon valley
19:44
people would get together we’d have a
19:45
topic or a panel
19:47
and people would just talk and they
19:49
seemed to be really
19:50
wanting to to get can get communicating
19:54
with each other
19:54
learn what was going on i really felt
19:57
great about these roundtables they were
19:58
a lot of work
20:00
but i enjoyed them we had one that i
20:03
think i’ll always remember
20:04
the t1 lines was taking 13 14 weeks to
20:07
get one installed for a new company
20:09
this was just you know inconceivable so
20:12
i said let’s have a round table
20:13
i got a call from senator baucus’s
20:15
office he said he would like to come and
20:17
speak because he’d heard about this
20:18
problem too when he arrived he
20:20
apologized he said russ sorry i can only
20:22
stay a few minutes after i give my
20:24
little speech
20:25
he ended up staying for over an hour as
20:28
he listened to the challenges
20:29
of the business community i would like
20:31
to think that this event had an impact
20:33
on him as he announced his first state
20:35
economic summit a few weeks later
20:37
matters all free
20:38
as you all know i rely on the huge
20:41
personal satisfaction i get from doing
20:43
matter
20:43
not the funding it generates it’s
20:45
certainly not the 34 cents an hour i
20:47
calculated i earned sitting on my butt
20:49
and answering the phone
20:51
while supporters and sponsors are
20:53
greatly appreciated
20:54
i’ve never focused on monetizing it in
20:56
spite of my wife’s concern
20:58
and frequent recommendations that you
21:00
should be charging for that
21:02
to me it’s all about montana an example
21:05
was a ceo i was talking to
21:07
he was having a hard time finding a
21:08
company to collaborate with they needed
21:10
some technology skills
21:12
i asked him have you walked across the
21:14
street he did
21:16
he found the company that fit his needs
21:18
that company didn’t have a sign on the
21:20
door
21:21
they competed for the contract they
21:22
didn’t get it but it really showed to me
21:24
the fact that we really needed to get
21:26
out of the office and talk to
21:27
our neighbors it’s been about 20 years
21:31
of updating the site
21:32
i produced three newsletters a week i
21:34
talked to thousands of wonderful people
21:37
and i have to thank montana and media
21:40
for helping me enjoy the best last job
21:42
i’ve ever had
21:44
i hope that if you haven’t already maybe
21:47
someday
21:48
in some dark back room of a dive bar you
21:50
can find your
21:51
dream job as i did maybe it just takes
21:55
communicating with the right people like
21:57
bud
21:58
and lou and john and steve and everybody
22:01
at mita
22:02
thanks russ to learn more about russ’s
22:04
passion project
22:05
montana associated technology
22:07
roundtables visit
22:09
matr.net teresa shriner is the
22:12
investment director
22:13
at the great falls development authority
22:15
she’s a former
22:16
butte rat who teases that she came
22:18
kicking and screaming to great falls
22:20
with her husband
22:21
although loves to sell folks on the
22:23
electric city teresa
22:24
just celebrated 10 years with her larger
22:26
than life husband casey
22:28
who equally challenges her efforts
22:31
together they have three scrappy and
22:33
smart little boys
22:34
that love to give them a run for their
22:36
money adam liam and finn
22:38
teresa calls her story nose down ass up
22:42
my dad has a small business in butte
22:44
it’s a dental practice
22:45
although i probably wouldn’t call it
22:46
small because as far as i remember it’s
22:48
been
22:49
probably the biggest practice see so my
22:52
dad’s practice let me tell you a little
22:53
bit about it
22:55
it is the practice that as far as i
22:57
remember we always had
22:59
the phone number listed from our house
23:01
in the white pages if you guys remember
23:02
the white pages
23:04
it’s the one because my dad remembers
23:06
what it’s like having a toothache
23:07
growing
23:08
up so he would always allow people to
23:09
call her home day and night
23:11
going to be ringing off the hook he’s
23:13
always the one that takes referrals from
23:15
the police department the er
23:17
any clinic indian health things like
23:19
that nature so he sees folks of
23:21
every stripe he’s also not a formal guy
23:25
just like his practice he’s unassuming
23:28
humble and larger than life
23:30
so people never call him doctor it’s not
23:32
even dr mike
23:33
he’s always been known by his high
23:35
school nickname beets
23:38
and my dad would always get home later
23:41
than
23:41
probably scheduled or he ever wanted to
23:43
be and
23:44
later than anticipated but he would pick
23:47
the four of us up
23:48
when he got off work he’d come rumbling
23:50
down the dirt road in this old beater of
23:52
a pickup truck and he’d lay on the horn
23:55
it was the signal for the four of us to
23:57
pile into this pickup truck
23:59
and go clean the office so we get in the
24:02
truck
24:03
we’d turn around and he’d head on back
24:05
to the office
24:06
he wouldn’t stay though because he would
24:08
just be dropping us off and he’d head
24:10
to doc’s place doc was his dad he’d
24:13
probably go have a beer and they’d
24:15
rattle off
24:16
war stories about some toothache that
24:18
day
24:19
and before we get out he turned to us
24:21
and he’d say
24:22
nose down kids ass up and i remember
24:25
thinking
24:25
that’s a strange way to clean because i
24:28
didn’t really know what it meant at the
24:29
time
24:30
but as i’d learn over the years he’d
24:32
tell us that all the time
24:34
it really meant nose to the grindstone
24:36
and do the hard work
24:38
now if any of you have kids grandkids or
24:40
even uh
24:41
you know nephews or nieces of your own
24:44
you probably know what it was like
24:46
when you would arrive back to a scene
24:48
leaving four rambunctious children
24:50
probably the oldest ten
24:52
uh to their own devices i don’t know
24:54
what my dad envisioned i don’t know if
24:56
he was picturing some sort of mary
24:57
poppins scene
24:58
leaving the four of us to clean the
25:00
office but really it was more like
25:02
something from one flew out of the
25:03
cuckoo’s nest
25:05
because what would happen my brothers
25:07
would haul out this really
25:08
large auric orange vacuum plug it in
25:12
and start it running then the two
25:14
brothers would start
25:16
i think negotiating who was going to
25:18
clean negotiating would escalate into
25:21
wrestling
25:22
wrestling would start yelling and then
25:24
somehow the two of them
25:25
would start deciding hey let’s have a
25:28
let’s have a water gun fight
25:30
so then they would go into the two
25:32
operatories or two of the operatories
25:34
they would take the dental squirt guns i
25:36
think you know what i’m talking about
25:38
and then they would start positioning
25:39
the squirt guns water would be splayed
25:41
out between operatory walls
25:44
my youngest sister would be lounged back
25:46
in a dental chair reading the latest
25:48
issue of highlights magazine
25:50
music would be blasting from the
25:52
laboratory usually it was doors my dad
25:54
was a big break on through album fan
25:56
and i remember myself really the
25:59
suffering middle child of it all
26:01
always the responsible one would be
26:03
clutched holding a broom or a mop
26:05
you know orphan annie style just
26:07
pleading with all of them
26:08
oh my god you guys help me he’s going to
26:10
be back soon
26:12
and he’d arrive probably about a half an
26:13
hour later to the scene
26:15
and even though everybody referred to my
26:18
dad as beats the four of us
26:19
affectionately called him beats a dead
26:20
horse
26:21
because he would follow us around the
26:23
office and he wouldn’t give in
26:26
he would just lecture us until we got it
26:27
done right
26:29
eventually we would learn that if we did
26:31
it right the first time
26:33
it would get done faster and the sooner
26:36
we actually got it done the sooner we
26:37
would be home
26:38
playing ninja turtles or street fighter
26:41
on our nintendo
26:43
now me being the suffering middle child
26:46
i
26:46
stayed with my dad on through college
26:48
and grad school and i worked with him
26:52
i remember throughout these years that i
26:54
was pretty embarrassed that we drove
26:56
these beater old trucks in all of these
26:57
old cars
26:59
and i asked my dad about it and i
27:01
learned that my dad because he takes
27:02
patients of all stripes
27:04
would tell me quite a few things in
27:06
addition to the nose down ass up
27:08
work ethic that my dad has he would tell
27:11
me more meaningful things too
27:13
he would often say that the
27:16
banker’s spouse takes care of the
27:18
widow’s heart condition
27:20
you see teresa beets would tell me that
27:23
a rising tide does lift all boats
27:26
it’s not about being the richest man in
27:27
the cemetery
27:29
after all you don’t see a hearse hauling
27:31
a u-haul
27:32
which is why he takes care of everybody
27:34
that he does
27:36
so my dad instilled in me this work
27:38
ethic but he also taught me
27:40
in this nose-down ass up attitude
27:43
that we’d better leave this place better
27:45
than we found it and my dad also taught
27:48
me that
27:49
throughout these years anytime i was
27:51
complaining about the social ills of the
27:53
world
27:54
i better be a part of the solution and
27:56
not the problem
27:57
so my dad’s diatribe continued to beat
27:59
through me like a drum
28:02
which matters because i think this is
28:04
why we are all doing what we do
28:07
and anytime i found myself progressing
28:09
throughout a career if i was unhappy
28:11
with it
28:12
i couldn’t go complain to my dad because
28:14
he would tell me
28:15
nose down ass up teresa go find the
28:18
solution
28:19
don’t be a part of the problem if you
28:22
find yourself being a part of the
28:23
problem
28:23
go find that solution so anytime i did
28:27
that i’d have to move up throughout this
28:29
progression
28:31
and i continued to ask myself what is
28:33
that man behind the curtain what is that
28:35
jack of all trades in the community
28:37
and i think we all know what it is it is
28:40
community development it is
28:41
economic development we are the end of
28:44
the yellow brick road
28:45
and now more than ever it is personal to
28:47
me
28:48
because about seven months ago my dad
28:50
actually called me
28:52
my dad who i have seen as this
28:55
true end of all being
28:58
called me at the beginning of the
28:59
shutdown
29:01
and he said i i don’t know what to do
29:04
i’m shut down
29:05
my dad hasn’t worked with a banker a
29:07
personal loan officer
29:09
since he’d opened his business he was
29:11
nearing retirement
29:14
and now my brother my younger brother
29:16
this man who i remember holding sport
29:18
guns
29:19
was looking at buying out his practice
29:22
but my brother had also seven hundred
29:23
thousand dollars in student loan debt
29:26
and had a baby on the way so
29:29
he didn’t know about the ppp loan he
29:31
didn’t know about the idle loan
29:32
wasn’t familiar with succession planning
29:35
he knew
29:36
what i did but didn’t know what i did
29:38
quite frankly
29:39
so because of the small business center
29:41
because of what we do as economic
29:43
developers
29:44
he’s been able to safely shut down he’s
29:47
been able to capitalize on ppp
29:49
loans and idle loans secure both of
29:51
those things
29:52
he’s been able to actually successfully
29:54
re-engineer his business and remodel his
29:56
business during the shutdown
29:58
and he’s been able to restore his
30:01
business
30:02
i can’t imagine what would happen
30:05
without my dad and my brother’s practice
30:08
in the community of butte so i want you
30:11
to remember that i want you to remember
30:12
the impact that we have
30:15
in the state of montana so i want to
30:18
leave by saying nose down people
30:20
ass up thanks teresa you can learn more
30:23
about the great falls development
30:24
authority by visiting
30:27
growgreatfallsmontana.org thank you all
30:29
for listening and supporting our
30:31
storytellers today
30:32
and thanks to all of the storytellers
30:34
gloria
30:35
heather russ and teresa if your
30:37
organization would like to learn how to
30:39
tell better stories
30:40
drop me a line at mark telesumming.org
30:43
that’s marc
30:45
tell us something dot org you can learn
30:47
more at
30:49
slash telesumming.org next week on the
30:52
teleslimming podcast we’ll hear from
30:53
nerma
30:54
dobre chanin a tell us something
30:56
storyteller who shared a story
30:57
in november of 2018 but
31:00
here there was nobody not even a car
31:04
to to go past i was thinking
31:07
what what is this resident evil or where
31:09
am i
31:12
i caught up with her last summer via
31:14
zoom to chat about her tell something
31:16
experience
31:17
and what it was like visiting the united
31:18
states from montenegro during her study
31:20
of the us
31:21
institute on secondary education through
31:23
the university of montana
31:25
tune in for that next week at
31:27
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31:29
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