Hey friends, welcome back to the old-fashioned on purpose podcast. So we are rolling through

our second episode of this new year. Last episode, I did a reintroduction of sorts,

just kind of sharing some of my edges and some of the

pieces of myself. I haven't talked a lot about online over the years. And you can go listen

my whole thought process behind that. But today, I thought it would be fun, maybe more fun for me than

you. I don't know. I think you'll get something out of this, even if it's just humor. To share some of my unfiltered, that's my favorite word right now,

unfiltered, confessions of being a small town restaurant owner. So I know a lot of you listening

have entrepreneurship aspirations or you have small businesses, you live in small towns. I don't know

how many of you are into food service or restaurants, but regardless,

a lot of the things I want to just kind of share off the cuff today apply across all

of those industries.

And if nothing else, just a little bit of camaraderie and solidarity for those of you

in the trenches with this as well.

So I'm going to be getting into more interviews and things like that later this season. But these first few episodes, I'm just kind of sharing some of my personal thoughts, just because I was quiet last year. I didn't talk a lot. I didn't have a lot of episodes. I didn't share a lot. So just kind of catching you up to where I'm at with things and what I've been thinking about. But a lot of you know, we own the Chugwater Soda Fountain in southeast Wyoming. Many of you have come visited us, and that is so fun and so humbling every single time you walk in. It's so amazing to meet you guys from all over the country. And sometimes the world, I get international visitors. And it's crazy to see so many of you in Chugwater.

Chugwater is a town of 200 people, if that. And it's just the neatest thing. So we have owned the

Soda Fountain for almost five years. And I have lots of previous episodes on that whole saga.

We almost sold it a couple years ago. We renovated it. It's been a whole thing,

a whole thing. But we are in a groove right now. We are not actively selling it. I have a really

good team. We're doing these fancy supper nights. We're busy in the summer. Like, we're in a good

flow. And so I've been there. I'm there almost every day or, you know, maybe five, five days a week, I guess, right now, which is more than I've ever been there

because I'm really enjoying it. And I have a lot of thoughts, so many thoughts. I think some of these

might be interesting to you today. So I'm going to talk about the parts I don't normally say out

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