Latest / Doug Has Questions / Episode 49: Glen Jacobson; Building a Business on the Water - The Mistakes, Risks, and Persistence

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Episode 49: Glen Jacobson; Building a Business on the Water - The Mistakes, Risks, and Persistence · Doug Has Questions

• 0:00
  Douglas: Hi, my name is Doug.
• 0:02
  Douglas: Thanks for tuning into my podcast.
• 0:03
  Douglas: Doug Has Questions.
• 0:04
  Douglas: I was born and raised in Haines, Alaska with two former educators' parents.
• 0:08
  Douglas: I got out of education, went into retail, and my sister and I grew up in a retail store that now includes clothing, groceries, and sporting goods.
• 0:17
  Douglas: Over the years, had a chance to meet people from a variety of different backgrounds, and I have a lot of questions for them.
• 0:23
  Douglas: Now I get to ask them.
• 0:25
  Douglas: Welcome to this episode of Doug Has Questions.
• 0:28
  Douglas: Today my guest is Glenn Jacobson.
• 0:31
  Douglas: Him and his wife Allison started the Haines Gagway Fast Ferry back in the day, which has evolved into Alaska Fjord Lines, and now your son Ketch is running Alaska Fjord Lines.
• 0:41
  Douglas: That's right.
• 0:43
  Glen Jacobson: That's pretty close, Doug.
• 0:44
  Glen Jacobson: Close?
• 0:45
  Glen Jacobson: It is close.
• 0:46
  Glen Jacobson: When uh when we started out, we wanted something that sounded cheap.
• 0:54
  Glen Jacobson: Okay.
• 0:54
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, so we called it Haynesgagway Water Taxi.
• 0:58
  Glen Jacobson: Okay.
• 0:59
  Glen Jacobson: And we did not call it Fast Ferry.
• 1:01
  Glen Jacobson: That wasn't that was another company that came up with apologize.
• 1:05
  Glen Jacobson: Well, no worries.
• 1:06
  Glen Jacobson: But we wanted it to sound cheap, but then uh later we didn't want it to sound so cheap.
• 1:13
  Glen Jacobson: And uh Allison came up with uh Haines Gagway Fast Ferry, the oh gosh, help me out here now.
• 1:24
  Glen Jacobson: I forget.
• 1:24
  Glen Jacobson: It was on all our advertising.
• 1:26
  Glen Jacobson: Uh Haines Gagway, Fast Ferry, the Sea Venture through Lynn Canal.
• 1:30
  Glen Jacobson: Okay.
• 1:31
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so the the the tagline uh got a little longer on the heading of that brochure.
• 1:41
  Douglas: Well before we go down your the line here.
• 1:45
  Douglas: I've got I've got you another coffee mug that you can so you get your so you can that was well this is lovely.
• 1:54
  Glen Jacobson: Thank you, Doug.
• 1:55
  Douglas: That's that's your that's your payment in full for sitting here and putting up with me.
• 2:00
  Douglas: We're a very low budget operation.
• 2:03
  Douglas: Uh-huh.
• 2:03
  Douglas: Coffee mug's all we could afford.
• 2:05
  Glen Jacobson: When uh yeah, we would have been way out of bounds to call ourselves the Fast Ferry Doug.
• 2:10
  Glen Jacobson: That first that first boat, little steel sea venture, it uh we bought it on it was on Lake Tahoe, and it was doing really it was, it was well, you know, it started its career as a as a crew boat out of Long Beach, California, a lot of uh Los Angeles.
• 2:34
  Glen Jacobson: It went it ran oil workers back and forth to a rig.
• 2:38
  Glen Jacobson: And then uh and uh then a guy bought it and took it to Lake Lake Tahoe and uh started Emerald Bay cruises with it, and uh that is where we found it for sale.
• 2:54
  Glen Jacobson: And so you brought it from Tahoe to Haines, correct.
• 2:59
  Douglas: That boat has seen some pretty different environments.
• 3:02
  Douglas: It has.
• 3:04
  Glen Jacobson: And uh I think that boat's in Huna now, and the new owner of that boat, you know, oh gosh.
• 3:16
  Glen Jacobson: You know, that boat, I ran it for four years.
• 3:24
  Glen Jacobson: And um when I sold it, it went to Elfin Cove, Port Althorpe, just south of Elfin Cove.
• 3:34
  Glen Jacobson: But that's in the governance of the the of Greater Elfin Cove, and uh it was Bob Dindinger from Juno, he was he was starting a new fishing lodge in Port Althorpe.
• 3:49
  Glen Jacobson: And he, of course, he wanted to have a bar at his fishing lodge, but his bar was not permitted, and he bought that boat from me and tied it to the dock, and it was the bar for the new fishing line.
• 4:01
  Glen Jacobson: Uh is where uh is where that boat ended up.
• 4:07
  Glen Jacobson: And and thank goodness that he needed a bar because uh I might have had trouble selling that boat to any thinking person.
• 4:19
  Glen Jacobson: And and I say that just because the boat was so slow, it was so heavy to it haul it didn't haul very many passengers, and it it had trouble getting out of its own way, and it was like a submarine, and you know it's uh it can be a pretty mean stretch of water between here and Skagway, yeah.
• 4:41
  Glen Jacobson: Uh just that stretch alone.
• 4:43
  Glen Jacobson: So uh, but anyway, we outgrew that boat fairly quickly.
• 4:50
  Douglas: So before we go too much into the business, let's back up Doug.
• 4:55
  Douglas: Let's back up.
• 4:57
  Glen Jacobson: I had a lot more to say about that.
• 4:58
  Douglas: Well, we're gonna come back.
• 4:59
  Douglas: We can either do it now or we can come back to it.
• 5:02
  Douglas: Let's come back to it.
• 5:03
  Douglas: Because I want to because you weren't born and raised in Alaska.
• 5:07
  Douglas: That's correct.
• 5:08
  Douglas: Kansas, correct?
• 5:09
  Douglas: That is right.
• 5:10
  Douglas: So how I want to figure out what happened in your childhood.
• 5:13
  Douglas: They got a boy from Kansas come up and start running a boat in southeast Alaska.
• 5:20
  Glen Jacobson: Sure.
• 5:20
  Glen Jacobson: I mean, that's a fair question, but uh as a businessman.
• 5:25
  Glen Jacobson: I was a businessman when I was 10 years old.
• 5:27
  Glen Jacobson: I was a businessman.
• 5:28
  Glen Jacobson: Okay.
• 5:29
  Glen Jacobson: I was I was the crawdad kid.
• 5:32
  Douglas: The crawdad kid?
• 5:34
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, well, you know, uh in I think in Louisiana they call them crawfish, but you know what I'm talking about.
• 5:38
  Glen Jacobson: It's a it's a little fresh water like a little lobster thing.
• 5:42
  Glen Jacobson: Yep.
• 5:42
  Glen Jacobson: And uh, but me and my brother Gary, we my dad had these ponds, and they had two of them had fish in them, and three or four of them had crawdads in them.
• 5:54
  Glen Jacobson: And we raised the crawdads for bait, you know, and so we would sign up these crawdads, and I had a sign in the front yard that said crawdads 35 cents a dozen.
• 6:04
  Glen Jacobson: Okay.
• 6:05
  Glen Jacobson: And people would drive by, and in that country, people like to go fishing for catfish, and there's just there's just no better bait than crawdads.
• 6:15
  Glen Jacobson: Everybody knows that.
• 6:16
  Glen Jacobson: Uh-huh.
• 6:16
  Glen Jacobson: So everybody needs them.
• 6:17
  Glen Jacobson: And and when you come to my place and you drive in the driveway and the gravel would crunch, and I'd run out, and because I knew they wanted crawdads, and I'd take them down to the pond, and they'd say, uh, I'll I want a dozen crawdads, and I'd always give them a couple extra.
• 6:31
  Glen Jacobson: And if they got three dozen, it was three dozen for a dollar.
• 6:36
  Glen Jacobson: Uh-huh.
• 6:37
  Glen Jacobson: But it takes a few crawdads to get ahead.
• 6:44
  Glen Jacobson: But you know, I think for three dozen for a dollar, yeah, you gotta sell a lot of crawdads.
• 6:50
  Glen Jacobson: You do, and and you know what, I would sell them wholesale to the bait chops even cheaper than that.
• 6:56
  Glen Jacobson: But uh, I know that there were years when Gary and me, I know we split more than 600 bucks.
• 7:02
  Glen Jacobson: So, you know, we were moving.
• 7:03
  Glen Jacobson: Moving to the crawads, yeah.
• 7:06
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, and and and Doug, that was so exciting.
• 7:08
  Glen Jacobson: I can remember when uh we hatched this plan, and I remember our first customer.
• 7:17
  Glen Jacobson: And I was like, I was jumping up and down, and my my mom tells the story that she said, and and Glenn was shouting, he says, we're doing it, we're doing it, we're really doing it.
• 7:29
  Glen Jacobson: But I I was uh excited about that, and and I liked I liked to watch that money stack up.
• 7:39
  Glen Jacobson: We had a little special black wallet looking thing that uh that we would jam those bills into and watch them stack up.
• 7:50
  Douglas: So what do you do you remember what your biggest crawdad sale was on a retail level?
• 7:55
  Glen Jacobson: I well, I don't remember it specifically, but I'll guarantee you that it was to one of the bait shops, and I would have orders for not 30 bucks, but some of them in excess of 20 bucks.
• 8:08
  Glen Jacobson: 20 dollars.
• 8:09
  Glen Jacobson: Okay.
• 8:09
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 8:10
  Glen Jacobson: So yeah, those were the big orders, and and those were exciting ones.
• 8:14
  Glen Jacobson: And and there was always more cod ends, so we could we we were excited to sell big orders at a discount.
• 8:22
  Douglas: Yeah.
• 8:25
  Glen Jacobson: So how so anyway, yeah.
• 8:26
  Glen Jacobson: You did that all through school then?
• 8:28
  Glen Jacobson: I did that.
• 8:28
  Glen Jacobson: I think we started that when I was 10, and then you know, by the time I was 16, uh, well, by the time I was 16, my brother Gary, he was way uninterested in crawds.
• 8:41
  Glen Jacobson: But uh he was two years older than me.
• 8:43
  Glen Jacobson: People around town, Doug.
• 8:45
  Glen Jacobson: Everybody in town, they think Gary's the younger brother, but he's not.
• 8:48
  Glen Jacobson: For the record, I'm the younger brother.
• 8:51
  Glen Jacobson: And and when I was growing up back there in Kansas, I always thought, okay, one of these days I'm gonna be bigger than you, and you are gonna pay.
• 9:00
  Glen Jacobson: And and I never did get bigger.
• 9:04
  Glen Jacobson: So you're still you're still waiting for that to go?
• 9:07
  Glen Jacobson: I never did get bigger than him, but I'll tell you a story about one time I got the better of him.
• 9:14
  Glen Jacobson: This is I'm gonna tell this story.
• 9:21
  Glen Jacobson: You and Marty can edit this out later.
• 9:24
  Glen Jacobson: But there was a time him and me, we weren't getting along for some reason.
• 9:27
  Glen Jacobson: And I always running.
• 9:28
  Glen Jacobson: I ran as fast as I could, and there's a chicken coop with a mulberry tree on the low side of the chicken roof, shed roof there.
• 9:36
  Glen Jacobson: And I climbed up the low side of that that uh chicken roof, right up the mulberry tree, and I'm standing on top of that chicken roof and I said, wash every year, and here he comes.
• 9:45
  Glen Jacobson: And he comes straight up to that mulberry tree, and he was starting to climb.
• 9:49
  Glen Jacobson: And I hadn't planned this, but occurred to me that I should pee on him.
• 9:57
  Glen Jacobson: And I just and it happened before I could take it through.
• 10:02
  Glen Jacobson: But uh, but but uh oh my gosh, I was laughing, and I saw a look in his eyes like like uh like I hadn't seen, and he accelerated up that tree, and I remember I ran, I ran off the high side of that roof, shed roof, and so and then below was this hard Kansas ground that was all pockmarked with cow tracks.
• 10:27
  Glen Jacobson: So, you know, it's not a it's not a friendly landing.
• 10:30
  Glen Jacobson: Uh-huh.
• 10:30
  Glen Jacobson: But I ran off the top side of that and I never broke stride and I ran past three ponds down into the woods, and I waited in the woods two hours until I saw my mom's car come home.
• 10:39
  Glen Jacobson: Come home.
• 10:40
  Glen Jacobson: And then I uh so no, I never got bigger than Gary, but uh there was that one time I topped him.
• 10:53
  Douglas: Did he explain to mom and dad what his younger brother did to him earlier in the day?
• 10:57
  Douglas: You know what?
• 10:58
  Glen Jacobson: He was kind of a good sport about it, and by that time he was actually laughing about it.
• 11:04
  Glen Jacobson: And I remember my dad laughed uh as well.
• 11:08
  Glen Jacobson: And so everything is water under the bridge and uh and all is well, and I never had to actually pay for that stunt.
• 11:16
  Glen Jacobson: Well, that's good.
• 11:17
  Glen Jacobson: When uh so yeah, those were some of the Kansas days, and that would have been well, where was I, Crawdads?
• 11:25
  Glen Jacobson: And so so, like by the time I was 16, uh I had a job uh doing other things.
• 11:31
  Glen Jacobson: I worked for uh worked at a marina, uh pumping gas and shuttling people up to their boats that were on moor.
• 11:37
  Glen Jacobson: You would you don't think this when you're in Kansas.
• 11:39
  Glen Jacobson: That's what I was I was like, there's marines in Kansas.
• 11:42
  Glen Jacobson: There's a it's a reservoir, Perry Reservoir is a tri uh Delaware River is a tributary of the Kansas River, which is a tributary of the Missouri River, and uh, but they had a dam on it, and uh, and so it backed up a lake, big muddy lake, that uh that people needed crawdads to go fish to go fish in that lake.
• 12:03
  Glen Jacobson: And I'll tell you what, Doug, that thing grew when I was see I fished also, and I ran trot lines even like when I was in high school, I'd go run my trot lines before school.
• 12:15
  Glen Jacobson: And trot line is like a long line, you know, but it and uh the law there said you can have 25 hooks on a trot line and you can have two of them.
• 12:24
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so I would run these and uh before school and I'd catch a lot of catfish.
• 12:30
  Glen Jacobson: And I remember I would eat catfish eggs, and I'd eat catfish for breakfast.
• 12:36
  Glen Jacobson: I love catfish, and I still love catfish, and the store-bought catfish is not quite the same, but still pretty good, but I still love catfish, but I caught a lot of I caught some big ones.
• 12:52
  Glen Jacobson: I caught several more than 50 pound catfish uh before school.
• 12:59
  Glen Jacobson: Before school.
• 12:59
  Glen Jacobson: I run in my trot lines, and uh and so when you would grab you grab a hold of that line, you know, and we and and when you had a big one, oh my gosh, you knew it.
• 13:10
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and the thrill came on then.
• 13:13
  Douglas: So if you're running these lines in the morning and you got fish on, are you dropping those off at the house or where do you what do you do with the fish?
• 13:20
  Glen Jacobson: I I I clean them quick, I clean them and quick and and get in the car and drive to school.
• 13:25
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and I s and you know you can't get catfish smell off of you.
• 13:30
  Glen Jacobson: So I don't know if the girls liked it or not, but I was proud of it that uh I'd gotten up before you guys did.
• 13:38
  Glen Jacobson: I already put five work in for yeah.
• 13:42
  Glen Jacobson: Uh so is that working at that marina then?
• 13:46
  Douglas: Is that kind of what gave you this?
• 13:47
  Douglas: Is that what developed on the water?
• 13:50
  Glen Jacobson: For a Kansas kid, I always had uh uh, you know, I had my first boat I got at 14 that that was my own.
• 13:57
  Glen Jacobson: And it was a little 12-foot John boat with a little tiny outboard on it, but it would get up on step barely, and I could get around a lot of places to get myself.
• 14:06
  Glen Jacobson: I don't think I laugh, you know.
• 14:08
  Glen Jacobson: In my business I'm in today, you go down to Juneau, you see these yachts tied up out there on the brake ball, you see these yachts that are anchored up out there, and you there's a lot of millions of dollars in those.
• 14:25
  Glen Jacobson: And I kind of chuckle to myself because I know, I know you cannot, it's impossible that you're having more fun on that $22 million yacht than I had in my $400 John Boat.
• 14:40
  Glen Jacobson: John boat?
• 14:41
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:41
  Glen Jacobson: You just cannot have more fun than I had in my um for sure.
• 14:46
  Glen Jacobson: Um with so yeah, but you know, like it and I kind of tricked my John Boat out and had you know, I'd I'd put waggle notes on the waggle knots on uh you know, Turks' heads on the oars and stuff and learn knots and have a knot book and uh and uh kind of pretend to be nautical uh uh i i in the middle of Kansas uh for sure.
• 15:19
  Glen Jacobson: But yeah, so young Glenn in Kansas.
• 15:25
  Glen Jacobson: Um Kansas was a great place to grow up and uh still have lifelong friends.
• 15:35
  Glen Jacobson: Matter of fact, when I went to college at Kansas State at Kansas State University and uh me and several of my buddies that uh from at college, we all decided that we would go to Yellowstone for the summer.
• 15:58
  Glen Jacobson: And well so for those summers while I was in college, I drove tour bus in Yellowstone Park for four years.
• 16:06
  Glen Jacobson: And that is where that's where I learned to give a tour.
• 16:10
  Glen Jacobson: A tour.
• 16:11
  Glen Jacobson: Okay.
• 16:11
  Glen Jacobson: Was was there in Yellowstone, and that's where you know I fell in love with Montana at that time.
• 16:19
  Glen Jacobson: And I have this ongoing my glass is not half full, man.
• 16:26
  Glen Jacobson: My glass is all the way full.
• 16:27
  Glen Jacobson: When I am gone from Montana, man, I miss that place.
• 16:30
  Glen Jacobson: And when I am gone from Alaska, man, I miss that place.
• 16:35
  Glen Jacobson: But uh but Allison and I we scored this little piece of ground back in 2002.
• 16:47
  Glen Jacobson: And it was after I sold up to the competition, but I found this little piece of farm ground on the Gallatin River bottom that uh we were able to pay cash for, and now we have a cabin on that, and we spend four or five months every winter there, and uh farm there, and Alice and and Glenn both love to cross country ski.
• 17:15
  Glen Jacobson: So we skate ski and it's not it's not four or five days a week, Doug.
• 17:21
  Glen Jacobson: It's five or six days a week that we're able, you know, we just we just do it, and uh we both are uh we both enjoy it so much, and it's it's it's a great blessing that that Allison when we're if she's not skiing, she misses it and she starts to get fidgety and crazy, and and Glenn has the same feelings about it.
• 17:45
  Glen Jacobson: So, you know, we're able to travel around down there and see a lot of country and see our daughters in Driggs and uh another daughter in California, and there is a lot of skiing between there and around on those routes as well.
• 18:02
  Douglas: So you're talking about college and then summers in Yellowstone.
• 18:06
  Douglas: Where along the road did you and Allison meet?
• 18:09
  Glen Jacobson: I met Allison in college.
• 18:12
  Glen Jacobson: And somehow, Doug, somehow I did not screw this up because she's the only girl I ever loved.
• 18:24
  Glen Jacobson: And but well, let me back up.
• 18:31
  Glen Jacobson: We met in college, but I knew who she was because her and her sisters, the Jameson girls, they're the three prettiest girls in the county.
• 18:40
  Glen Jacobson: And they were in the next two or three towns away over in Perry, Kansas, over there on the Kansas River where all the rich farmers lived.
• 18:49
  Glen Jacobson: And we were up in the rocks where all the poor farmers were.
• 18:52
  Douglas: But so you knew about her before.
• 18:54
  Glen Jacobson: Well, yeah I did because I knew of her and her sisters because they were cheerleaders at school where uh that we played all our sports against.
• 19:03
  Glen Jacobson: And I never excelled in any sport uh but uh but the Perry excelled in their cheerleaders, so we all noticed those Perry cheerleaders.
• 19:14
  Glen Jacobson: I saw her uh I think the first time I saw her, I was no kidding, it's probably eighth grade.
• 19:20
  Glen Jacobson: Uh, but I did I met her officially in college.
• 19:24
  Glen Jacobson: In college.
• 19:24
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 19:25
  Glen Jacobson: Freshman year, sophomore year?
• 19:26
  Glen Jacobson: Oh, well, yeah, freshman year.
• 19:29
  Glen Jacobson: Her freshman year, my sophomore year.
• 19:31
  Douglas: Okay.
• 19:32
  Douglas: And was that in class or at a social gathering?
• 19:35
  Glen Jacobson: We had mutual friends and we met at a social gathering.
• 19:39
  Douglas: And was it just like instantaneous or did you have to work for that?
• 19:42
  Glen Jacobson: You know, I think it was pretty instantaneous because I can remember her eyes getting big.
• 19:47
  Glen Jacobson: Uh uh when you know, when you look into somebody's eyes and you see that uh that little pupil died.
• 19:52
  Glen Jacobson: I remember it distinctly.
• 19:53
  Glen Jacobson: Uh but yeah, so anyway, but then so we were on again, off again for quite a few years there, but finally uh when we were graduated, you know, during those years that, like I said, I was going coming up to uh to uh drive a tour bus in Yellowstone.
• 20:16
  Glen Jacobson: Allison, she was going to Alaska.
• 20:20
  Glen Jacobson: And it was it was always her dream to go to Alaska.
• 20:24
  Glen Jacobson: Her father had gone away to Alaska and hunted a big bad grizzly bear out on the Alaska Peninsula when she was a little girl.
• 20:32
  Douglas: Uh-huh.
• 20:32
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so uh she had heard the Alaska stories and and uh and and her father would I think he said something along the lines of, oh, if I was young, I'd go to Alaska.
• 20:46
  Glen Jacobson: So she went to Alaska.
• 20:48
  Glen Jacobson: So she went to Alaska.
• 20:49
  Glen Jacobson: And where where did she go and what was she doing?
• 20:51
  Glen Jacobson: She was in Denali, and she worked for the concessionaire there, and she was but she was studying natural resource management at Kansas State, and so she did a uh she did a moose study with uh a biologist in McKinley, and she would go out in the field with her, the moose, and the bears, and she would uh diligently mark down in her notebook every time uh the moose chewed its cud or stopped chewing its cud or and note its orientation of which way you know its flank was pointed toward the sun or away from the sun or uh things like that.
• 21:37
  Glen Jacobson: She did that all summer.
• 21:38
  Glen Jacobson: Um one itch yeah.
• 21:41
  Glen Jacobson: So she was she was going away to Alaska, I was going away to Montana, and then um then after school we got engaged and we decided uh, you know, one way or the other.
• 21:59
  Glen Jacobson: Well Actually, I have to back up because I think Allison was she was generating some interest from males in Alaska.
• 22:10
  Glen Jacobson: And and so something Glenn needed to Glenn needed to make sure that he didn't need to get serious about the pursuit of this or not.
• 22:22
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and and I got serious about pursuit of that and asked her to marry me and and she said yes.
• 22:30
  Glen Jacobson: So um yeah, you should have asked, I think I you should have asked her to do this interview.
• 22:39
  Douglas: I did ask her, but you did ask her.
• 22:40
  Douglas: I did ask her, and she told me I needed I I asked you first.
• 22:44
  Douglas: You said you need to have Alison on, and I asked Allison, and I said Glenn said she doesn't know Glenn needs to be on there.
• 22:50
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, well no, the okay, well here's the thing to Allison.
• 22:56
  Douglas: You need to come on and tell us all the things that Glenn got wrong.
• 23:05
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, I I don't know.
• 23:06
  Glen Jacobson: If you're listening public, we'll want both uh stories, but uh but uh I think that uh oh yeah.
• 23:15
  Glen Jacobson: You'll you can you can edit them and you might just decide to just edit Glenn out and just do the Allison one.
• 23:22
  Glen Jacobson: I don't know.
• 23:23
  Glen Jacobson: I think that I'm enjoying this so far.
• 23:25
  Glen Jacobson: Oh god, yeah well I am too, Doug.
• 23:29
  Douglas: Uh well tell me.
• 23:31
  Douglas: So you guys, after you graduated, you're still in Kansas.
• 23:35
  Douglas: How you get how how far out of college were you when you got married?
• 23:39
  Glen Jacobson: We was we were both in Montana, actually.
• 23:41
  Glen Jacobson: I think, yeah, one winter we both we were both working out of West Yellowstone.
• 23:46
  Glen Jacobson: Doing tour business?
• 23:47
  Glen Jacobson: You know, I was driving snow coach and Allison was working at a snowmobile shop.
• 23:54
  Glen Jacobson: Okay, and then we got engaged and then got married that spring, and then we loaded up in car and went to the Kenai Peninsula.
• 24:03
  Douglas: Okay, what was waiting in on the and on the Kenai Peninsula?
• 24:08
  Glen Jacobson: I uh I had some fishing experience, guiding experience because I worked part-time in West Yellowstone for Jacqueline's fly shop.
• 24:17
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so I I was guiding fishermen mostly on the Madison River.
• 24:23
  Glen Jacobson: Uh and we so I applied around and the Alaska Fish Camp said, Come on, yeah, we need you, but you need to have your captain's license.
• 24:37
  Glen Jacobson: And so I said, Well, you back up.
• 24:42
  Glen Jacobson: Remember, Doug, I said I had my own boat when I was 14.
• 24:46
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, and so uh I just needed the registration numbers.
• 24:50
  Glen Jacobson: I signed off my sea time as diligently as I had logged it and had my sea time, and I uh went to Seattle on my way to Alaska for my guiding job.
• 25:04
  Glen Jacobson: Uh-huh.
• 25:05
  Glen Jacobson: And uh I went to Seattle and went to sea school and passed the Coast Guard test.
• 25:11
  Glen Jacobson: You get three tries, and I got it, I got it perfect on my third try.
• 25:15
  Glen Jacobson: And so then we we proceeded on up the Alki and and uh we summered on the Kenye, and Allison was working at Bakage Boggs Visitor Center, and that's the uh the uh the glacier there uh right at the start of turn at the end of Turnigan Arm and right at the start of the Kenai Peninsula.
• 25:39
  Glen Jacobson: And and I worked at the fish camp.
• 25:42
  Douglas: And so you're you're a fish guide also.
• 25:44
  Glen Jacobson: I was a fish guide also when we were we were fishing for King Sam and and the uh yeah, and I was in a power boat, so which is why I needed my captain's license.
• 25:55
  Glen Jacobson: And uh my license was pretty limited.
• 26:00
  Glen Jacobson: My license said uh O OUPV operator of inspected passenger vessel on the waters of the Kenai River.
• 26:08
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and I don't remember why it was that limited, but that's what it was.
• 26:15
  Glen Jacobson: And so anyway, I I I I worked there that summer and fishing for big, exciting King Salmon.
• 26:24
  Glen Jacobson: My gosh, that was fun.
• 26:25
  Glen Jacobson: And I worked with good people.
• 26:26
  Glen Jacobson: I worked with fishermen, I thought I was a good fisherman.
• 26:30
  Glen Jacobson: I worked with guys who were like voodoo magic fishermen.
• 26:34
  Glen Jacobson: And uh the uh and I'm still friends with I'm still with a couple of them I had to keep in touch with that we were there that summer.
• 26:47
  Glen Jacobson: And but I remember this is that I had one day off that summer.
• 26:55
  Glen Jacobson: And Allison she, her and I, we went to uh Seward, and we went on the Kenai Fjords trip.
• 27:10
  Glen Jacobson: It's a day excursion on a boat, and you go south down to the end of the Kenai Peninsula, and there's some fjords down there, and that there are tidewater glaciers and uh puffins and and holy cow, there were orange starfish on the rocks, even you know, I and uh orange and purple starfish, and and I was enchanted.
• 27:30
  Glen Jacobson: And um we got done with that trip, and we're driving out of there and had our one day off, but uh uh I we both knew okay, this is what we're gonna do.
• 27:44
  Glen Jacobson: We we're gonna we're going to run a tour boat.
• 27:46
  Glen Jacobson: This is how, this is the way.
• 27:48
  Glen Jacobson: That one experience, yeah, both of you guys were immediately.
• 27:52
  Glen Jacobson: I was for sure.
• 27:54
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and and Alison was was on board right away.
• 28:00
  Glen Jacobson: Uh so yes, that's what that we we I decided I didn't want to be a fishing guide anymore.
• 28:07
  Glen Jacobson: Uh I like fishing for I like to sport fish, but I preferred to do it for myself and not be in charge of somebody else's because when I don't catch fish, I can be really happy and and satisfied and content.
• 28:22
  Glen Jacobson: Uh so uh I was I was that's what we we decided we wanted to do.
• 28:28
  Glen Jacobson: And so we wintered in Anchorage that year, and Allison had a couple jobs because she's ambitious, and I had one job, but I'm not quite as ambitious, but I worked hard in the in the freezer section at uh I forget what Price Chopper, some discount grocery store.
• 28:50
  Glen Jacobson: And uh in the spring, Allison got a job offer with the state in Sitka.
• 28:57
  Glen Jacobson: And so we she accepted and we loaded up our little car and we drove to Haines to catch the ferry.
• 29:08
  Glen Jacobson: And of course, I mean Doug, yes, everybody's remembered when Barney was telling the story about her her trip over the over the Chilcat Pass for the first time, how her jaw dropped, and it made an impression on her.
• 29:24
  Glen Jacobson: And I remember having that same experience, both Allison and I were just and then we got down into this valley and it was just beautiful.
• 29:31
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and then we did not get back here for a number of years uh to Haines, but we remember Haines, and Haines would come up in conversations, and and and then that was about the time White Fang came out, and I remember going to the movie theater in Sitka and seeing White Fang and remembering those mountains and the cathedrals and and uh uh and that that I remember that bringing Haines back to the forefront.
• 30:03
  Glen Jacobson: But so Doug, we got to sitka and we're living in paradise, and um we had this little brown trailer rented right on the waterfront.
• 30:17
  Glen Jacobson: And you know, for me it was magic.
• 30:19
  Glen Jacobson: There were little minky whales, they'd come right by the shoreline, and then a humpback whale would blow out there, and then just just living on the waterfront for this Kansas kid.
• 30:31
  Glen Jacobson: This is this is a dream come true.
• 30:33
  Glen Jacobson: And uh I went to work there for a tour company, and that was Alaska Travel Adventures, and uh uh that was Mr.
• 30:44
  Glen Jacobson: Dindinger's uh outfit at the time, Bob Dindinger's his name is a great boss.
• 30:49
  Glen Jacobson: And we ran had called the Golden Spirit, was a catamaran, and we would run it out to St.
• 30:59
  Glen Jacobson: Lazaria Island.
• 31:00
  Glen Jacobson: And this is a little volcanic island that is magic, it's just full of birds, uh storm petrels and the exotic and and then the and puffins, of course, lots of puffins, and great halibut fishing out there as well.
• 31:20
  Glen Jacobson: But we would run these zodiacs and Achilles inflatable rafts uh out there and wait for the mothership to arrive with the tourists off of the cruise ship.
• 31:33
  Glen Jacobson: And when the when the mothership got there, the big catamaran, then we would load them on board our little uh zodiac, our little inflatables, and we would run with 13.
• 31:44
  Glen Jacobson: We had a special permit.
• 31:46
  Glen Jacobson: Uh had to get my my Coast Guard license endorsed.
• 31:55
  Glen Jacobson: And at that time, my Coast Guard license read operator, uninspected, inflatable power vessel, unlimited tonnage.
• 32:10
  Glen Jacobson: And I think they just you know somebody got a chuckle out of that when they made it up, but I got the endorsement from the Coast Guard office and was able to operate.
• 32:23
  Glen Jacobson: So so I was able so we put 13 people on a on a all of this.
• 32:30
  Glen Jacobson: All of this makes 15-foot 14-foot zodiac?
• 32:33
  Glen Jacobson: The zodiac was a 22-foot-foot zodiac.
• 32:36
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, they were mark five, I think they were called.
• 32:39
  Glen Jacobson: They're massive things, and they were a good boat, but man, they weren't near the boat the Achilles were.
• 32:44
  Glen Jacobson: And we had the 18-foot Achilles, and we put 11 people in that 18-foot Achilles, and that's what I got to run, was the Achilles.
• 32:53
  Glen Jacobson: But uh so then we would just put them around on that island, and when and that was magic, you know, there's a big ocean swell, and you go in these caves and you kind of time it with the swell, and you get like a little, you know, like a little ro roller coaster whoosh in your belly at the same time.
• 33:17
  Glen Jacobson: That's just all kind of a thrill, and you could kind of anticipate it.
• 33:20
  Glen Jacobson: But I the the the passengers enjoyed it.
• 33:23
  Glen Jacobson: That I'm kind of going all over the place here, but uh it gets it gets, you know, when when when I designed the fjord land, I had this conversation with my architect.
• 33:37
  Glen Jacobson: I told him about that 18-foot Achilles.
• 33:40
  Glen Jacobson: I said we get 11 passengers in there, and I had these little hydrofoil wingtips, and it was called a dole fin, which is they they still make hydrofoil uh attachments for an outboard, and maybe you sell them here, but these were better.
• 33:57
  Glen Jacobson: And I and I was and I was remember talking to the designer why they were, because I could get 11 people up on plane with that with a what my gosh, what was that?
• 34:07
  Glen Jacobson: Was a 55-horse Evan Rood on there, and you could I could get 11 people up on plane.
• 34:13
  Glen Jacobson: Dang, yeah, it depended, you know, but that sometimes the 11 people there is but we were right on the edge, but that's still a lot of people.
• 34:19
  Glen Jacobson: That's a lot of people.
• 34:20
  Glen Jacobson: And uh with a 50 horse, and you and you know, you just you get over that hump and then you could maintain it.
• 34:27
  Glen Jacobson: But uh I was always impressed with that, and it stuck with me, but I get off topic there.
• 34:32
  Glen Jacobson: But uh but I remember that conversation with the designer of the Fjord land and Pete Melvin, and that just went took us down a long road.
• 34:46
  Glen Jacobson: I I had still have such a great relationship with that man.
• 34:52
  Glen Jacobson: He he just gets uh what it takes to build the right boat.
• 35:01
  Glen Jacobson: Um but anyway, I also it we're in Sitka and we're doing those tours, and then uh that would keep me somewhat busy.
• 35:11
  Glen Jacobson: You know, back in those days we'd get two or three uh ships a week in Sitka, and so you know, that'd keep you somewhat busy, but I needed more work, and I hooked on with Tugboat Company, and it was Campbell towing out of Wrangle, and uh mostly, and so I worked for them for the next three years, more or less full-time.
• 35:29
  Glen Jacobson: And then when I was off and on shore, I get I could work for uh for the company doing the the zodiac tours and the Achilles tours that I really enjoyed doing those and so was uh loved to be able to do them when I could, and and that seemed to work out for everybody.
• 35:47
  Douglas: What was Allison's job with the stadium?
• 35:49
  Glen Jacobson: And then she was uh security at the Sheldon Jackson Museum at with uh in Sitka.
• 35:58
  Glen Jacobson: At the college there?
• 35:59
  Glen Jacobson: Yes.
• 36:00
  Glen Jacobson: And uh she worked with yeah, I think we were there for all the better part of three years, maybe not quite three years.
• 36:10
  Glen Jacobson: And yeah, she worked for the state at that museum, and and uh she made better money than me.
• 36:19
  Glen Jacobson: And it's a good thing, because after three years, you know, we had saved up a little nest egg.
• 36:25
  Glen Jacobson: And we were going to either buy a house or buy a boat.
• 36:32
  Glen Jacobson: And we had some different ideas in our heads about uh what kind of boat business we wanted to be in, and we were talking to the banker in Sitka, and nobody was as near as excited about it as I was, but uh uh listing my assets to the banker that didn't amount to much for sure.
• 36:54
  Glen Jacobson: We ended up, okay, we decided that we wanted to do Tracy Arm trips out of jail.
• 37:01
  Glen Jacobson: And uh but and I was and and I had and I had a little money saved, and I found this boat on Lake Tahoe, and it was for sale, and and the price was right, and uh and and I bought that boat and I paid too much money for it, and it wasn't the boat I thought it was gonna be, and it was incapable of making that trip.
• 37:37
  Glen Jacobson: So plan B.
• 37:40
  Glen Jacobson: Well actually it was just too slow.
• 37:43
  Glen Jacobson: Too slow.
• 37:44
  Douglas: Too slow, yeah.
• 37:45
  Douglas: And and was that something for you not did you not test drive it beforehand?
• 37:51
  Glen Jacobson: I test drove it and uh and I listened to the guy that sold me the boat, and uh he told me that, well, you know, we take it down to sea level, you know, we're at 9,000 feet here.
• 38:02
  Glen Jacobson: We did it down to sea level, you get some air in those four 64 engines and you you you you'll you'll get your speed.
• 38:08
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so you can overcome uh mistakes and and uh financial challenges and hurdles if you're persistent and you're willing to go to plan B or plan C if necessary.
• 38:30
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so then we were thinking you know, we were thinking about oh, we could do these kayak tour float houses, and but uh the guy in Juno uh he was he was just something to do tourism with the state of Alaska.
• 38:46
  Glen Jacobson: And we were in his office one day, and he says, Oh, he says, you know, they got the new rail this rail, let's just go and uh Haines Gagway's 15 miles, 360 miles by road, it's fifteen miles by water, and uh uh you could you could you could do a rail and sale package.
• 39:06
  Glen Jacobson: And so, you know, that one we wanted to go back to Haines, and that is the idea, the plan B or C that we decided that was the one we wanted to pursue and uh and take a chance on being able to make a living in Haines.
• 39:24
  Glen Jacobson: And that's when and that was so that was 1991 when we arrived here in Haines, and I remember calling the harbor master on the radio, and it was Jasper Sullivan, and he he he answered the radio and helped us tie up the boat and uh and and then we we we walked into the the uh the mayor's office the next day to get some advice and uh Frank uh Frank Wallace?
• 40:02
  Glen Jacobson: Frank Wallace, he uh I remember, you know, Frank, he was so I don't know, you I came out of his office and we felt like man we'll conquer the world.
• 40:16
  Glen Jacobson: And we knew that we had Frank Wallace on our team, and and he he you remember him, and he was here come these stranger kids, walked into his office, and he was not dismissive at all.
• 40:33
  Glen Jacobson: He was so excited and encouraging that uh Haines wants new energy, haynes wants business, yep, as was his attitude, and uh that was that that was encouraging to us.
• 40:47
  Glen Jacobson: So then we started running between Haines and Skagway on a daily schedule.
• 40:52
  Glen Jacobson: We had ticket tours, trips, and things.
• 40:55
  Glen Jacobson: That was Frank Haas.
• 40:57
  Glen Jacobson: He was selling our tickets.
• 40:59
  Glen Jacobson: We had we had a we had a brochure, $25, round trip, Haines Skagway, and there was Doug, there was a phone number on the brochure.
• 41:11
  Glen Jacobson: Oh, you know, this is before cell phones, and there was a phone number on the brochure, and it went to a telephone that had an answering machine built in, expensive, one of them expensive $35 telephones.
• 41:23
  Glen Jacobson: And it was we had it in a box on a post at the top of the ramp in the harbor.
• 41:28
  Glen Jacobson: Seriously, I mean we had the phone line that customers, and so that thing would ring in there and and and you'd get a message on and and if somebody left a message, all of a sudden, you know, she would check that and uh and return their calls.
• 41:41
  Glen Jacobson: But uh, but all our uh the the brochure said it uh said reservation's not necessary, buy your tickets on board.
• 41:50
  Glen Jacobson: And uh, so that's what people did.
• 41:54
  Glen Jacobson: And I remember, you know, we were a month into it, and we'd had some skinny days, and we didn't didn't have too many days where we were actually making a profit, but uh so we were we were burning through money slowly but steadily, and I remember there was one day, and this fella he was a widower, he had just lost his love his wife, and so he'd come up to Alaska on this trip, and he had a heavy heart.
• 42:21
  Glen Jacobson: And uh because his his him and his wife were going to do this trip, you know.
• 42:26
  Glen Jacobson: Well, he came to our boat and he was there 40 minutes early because he wanted to get a good seat.
• 42:32
  Glen Jacobson: And me and Alison, you know, we're living on board the boat, and we're eating our oatmeal.
• 42:36
  Glen Jacobson: And uh then and we said, come on board, come on board, you want a cup of coffee?
• 42:42
  Glen Jacobson: And he so he got his good seat and then we waited our 40 minutes until departure time, and we we left for Skagway, and he was our only passenger.
• 42:51
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so then we got to Skagway, and well, I got another uh to pick up passengers there because you know you really make money when you get the backhaul going.
• 43:05
  Glen Jacobson: And we got to Skagway and there was no passengers there.
• 43:08
  Glen Jacobson: And but we have a departure at Haines at 345.
• 43:12
  Glen Jacobson: So we came back with an empty boat.
• 43:15
  Glen Jacobson: We we hung out in Haines kind of depressing that day and waited for our 345 departure and watching the ramp and seeing if anybody's gonna walk down because you can buy your tickets on board, no reservation necessary, and whoever watched it, and nobody else showed up though.
• 43:32
  Glen Jacobson: So we ran an empty boat back to Skagway and we picked this guy up and we brought him alone back to Haines, and so that was so two round trips to Skagway for a twenty five dollar fare.
• 43:49
  Douglas: Yeah, that was twenty five bucks.
• 43:51
  Douglas: Dang.
• 43:52
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, that was harsh.
• 43:53
  Glen Jacobson: And but that guy, he went about his Alaska vacation, but he he He he missed Haines too.
• 44:01
  Glen Jacobson: And he adopted us.
• 44:03
  Glen Jacobson: And then he came back and he he kind of he just spent the last eight weeks of his summer in Haines.
• 44:08
  Glen Jacobson: And he'd just hang out, and everybody that came into the RV park, he'd he'd tell them, Oh, you gotta take this trip.
• 44:13
  Glen Jacobson: He adopted us.
• 44:14
  Glen Jacobson: So we that he's my favorite customer.
• 44:18
  Glen Jacobson: And uh but uh so we we we had we got a history with him.
• 44:24
  Glen Jacobson: We got him 40 minutes early, and but we got him over to Skagway and we got him back.
• 44:29
  Douglas: So when that when you're having days like that, yeah, are you and Alison having conversations like okay, what's plan F because look at like no this winter together lots of things?
• 44:41
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, yeah, and and and we'd have those because man, we'd have those conversations in the summer because in the winter we would rarely see each other because I'd be gone on the tugboat and tried to stack up some money again, and Allison worked for the Forest Service.
• 44:58
  Glen Jacobson: But uh we we would, you know, the you talk, and uh but but we wanted to make that work.
• 45:08
  Glen Jacobson: And and if we couldn't make that work, we we really we we we may have we had didn't ever come up with plan F because uh we we were going to make it work in Haines, and if we couldn't make it work in Haines, we we'd figure out something, but we we never got that far into it.
• 45:29
  Glen Jacobson: The second year doing the business, you know, we we lost money the second year as well, but we didn't lose near as much.
• 45:38
  Glen Jacobson: And we had a few days that were kind of exciting that uh that man, we've made money today.
• 45:46
  Glen Jacobson: And at the end of the season, maybe you can't say we made money, but there were those days where we're in the block, yes, and so so that was encouraging, and that the third year is I've heard this in other businesses too, but the third year it was like throwing a light switch, and we still had the same brochure with no reservations necessary, buy your tickets on board.
• 46:18
  Glen Jacobson: And every day I have people holding that in their hand, and I was turning them away because I had I I well I forget it was 36 seat boat boat, I think maybe it was 32, but yeah, it was it was not it most days it was sold out, and I turned the people away at the dock, and uh so that was hard because you you're looking these people right in the eye and you've said it right there in your advertisement.
• 46:51
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so did most people take that well, or did you have you had some really angry people?
• 46:58
  Glen Jacobson: Well, of course, we we we had we had disappointed people and people that uh you know it people I couldn't couldn't explain.
• 47:10
  Glen Jacobson: Man, I'm an honest businessman.
• 47:12
  Glen Jacobson: You could talk to your blue in the face, but you know, they aren't having it.
• 47:17
  Glen Jacobson: They heard this was a good trip.
• 47:19
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and I just grabbed the brochure and saw we buy our tickets on board.
• 47:24
  Glen Jacobson: And I called your phone number and nobody answered.
• 47:26
  Glen Jacobson: Nobody answered, yeah.
• 47:26
  Glen Jacobson: Ring, ring, ring at the top of the dock.
• 47:28
  Glen Jacobson: And you can't explain these things, so so but it was a profitable year, and uh and and that was exciting, and uh I think you know, money is is uh it allows, it lubricates life, and uh uh for me it's important, and I get excited about it, and we were both excited that fall, and we were boat shopping.
• 48:06
  Douglas: So you after that first year of profitability, like we're yeah, we want to go up with this, and we need a different boat.
• 48:13
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, and and we we and so that was year three.
• 48:17
  Glen Jacobson: I think we ran the sea venture one for four years, so we ran it one more year, yeah, and we we straightened out our our reservations, and we get had uh we had a lot of help from well Randa Samanski, she helped us all the way from the start through uh this stage as well.
• 48:38
  Glen Jacobson: But uh it was Frank Haas at Tickets, tours, trips, and things who took over the bookings.
• 48:45
  Glen Jacobson: Okay, and this is a business deal where everybody wins.
• 48:50
  Glen Jacobson: It was a good deal for Frank, he made money, it was a good deal for us, we made money, and it was a good deal for the customers because they were thrilled and we gave them a great trip.
• 48:58
  Glen Jacobson: Uh so we were uh we we were we were happening and we were never oversold.
• 49:04
  Glen Jacobson: Uh and we and and people and it and it created some urgency uh to uh to uh to if you if you're sold out it creates some urgency.
• 49:18
  Glen Jacobson: And so uh yeah, year four was a good year, and uh after year four we took the books to Dick Flagel and uh and with our plan we had a uh builder that we were gonna use down in Florida.
• 49:35
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and Dick said he he he was Dick was great to work with.
• 49:43
  Glen Jacobson: He it was it's kind of like, yeah, we have to get your paperwork in order, and we're gonna help you get your paperwork in order, but it's somewhere the undertone was we're gonna we're gonna make this work.
• 49:55
  Glen Jacobson: You're gonna you're gonna get this loan.
• 49:56
  Glen Jacobson: I think that we can make this happen.
• 49:58
  Glen Jacobson: I don't can't imagine why we can't, but we got a lot of stuff to get in row because I got to send this application through Anchorage, and uh, and it'll be good for uh for you and us, all of us, to go through this exercise.
• 50:11
  Glen Jacobson: So uh Dick financed that boat for us and uh uh Naples, Florida, Bellcraft.
• 50:19
  Glen Jacobson: They had a they were they did a lot of oil industry stuff, and they did, but they had a well they did tour boat for one Nashville company, anyway, but Bellcraft, Lauren Bell uh was the guy's name, and he was uh right on the edge of being profitable.
• 50:41
  Glen Jacobson: He was he was he had a boat that was canceled order that was going to go to South America oil field, and that uh the holes were already done.
• 50:52
  Glen Jacobson: And he says, we can make the perfect tour boat for you out of this.
• 50:56
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so we we we got it to where it would it could work, and it was a good deal for him, it was a good deal for us, and uh he built us a wonderful boat that we named uh the Sea Venture 2.
• 51:12
  Glen Jacobson: Okay.
• 51:13
  Glen Jacobson: And that one was an 80-passenger boat, and um and you would be pressed to call it high speed, but it was for me, my gosh, after I ran Haines Skagway back and forth at seven knots.
• 51:27
  Glen Jacobson: You know, the the the brochure, the reservation necessary, it also said hour and forty-five minutes, but it was more like two hours and ten minutes, but it looked better to say an hour and forty-five.
• 51:42
  Glen Jacobson: We stuck with the hour and forty.
• 51:43
  Glen Jacobson: Anyway, I felt like I was flying when I was 15, 16 knots in the sea venture to see how'd you get that from Florida?
• 51:51
  Glen Jacobson: Did you truck that across the country then?
• 51:53
  Glen Jacobson: Yes, no.
• 51:54
  Glen Jacobson: We we took we took delivery of the sea venture to Naples, Florida, on April 1st, 95.
• 52:07
  Glen Jacobson: And we started across the Gulf of Mexico.
• 52:13
  Douglas: Did you go down through the Panama Canal and back up?
• 52:15
  Glen Jacobson: No, no, no.
• 52:16
  Glen Jacobson: We started across the Gulf of Mexico hugging the shoreline, going north, and we uh we were headed for Galveston, Texas.
• 52:24
  Glen Jacobson: Okay, and then we had a trucker lined up to bring the boat from Galveston to Tacoma, Washington.
• 52:31
  Glen Jacobson: Okay.
• 52:31
  Glen Jacobson: So that's how we got it home.
• 52:33
  Douglas: Okay, and then you guys took it from Tacoma through the inside passage and brought it up.
• 52:36
  Douglas: Yes.
• 52:37
  Douglas: Okay.
• 52:39
  Glen Jacobson: This is the second boat I brought up.
• 52:40
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 52:41
  Glen Jacobson: I remember I remember there was Sea Venture 2 trip was largely uneventful once we got to Tacoma.
• 52:54
  Glen Jacobson: But going across the Gulf of Mexico was uh was a challenge.
• 53:00
  Glen Jacobson: We came into we came into escapes me now, into a port in a storm, and it's shallow there, you know, and it's dark, shallow and dark.
• 53:15
  Glen Jacobson: And we had a uh I had a delivery captain hired.
• 53:24
  Glen Jacobson: So it was him and me running the boat, and he had he knew the route and he knew the waters, and uh we were coming into port in a shallow, and the waves are huge, and you have to be right in the buoy line where the it's dredged in order to get through those breaking waves, and it was it was blowing too hard, and we shouldn't be doing that.
• 53:55
  Glen Jacobson: And that captain was seasick and he was vomiting.
• 53:58
  Douglas: Oh shit.
• 53:58
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, and I was that's not a good sign.
• 54:01
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, and he had the wheel, and he was taking us into port, and I think he's taking us into port no matter what.
• 54:10
  Glen Jacobson: And I remember I grabbed the wheel and I just looked at the compass and I turned it 180 degrees on the compass and just held that course, and it was just everything we could do to hold our own.
• 54:22
  Glen Jacobson: And then I could see the sea buoy.
• 54:24
  Glen Jacobson: You couldn't see these other buoys were like the size of milk jugs that take you into port.
• 54:28
  Glen Jacobson: You can't find them on your radar, especially in these seas, but you could see the sea buoys, this giant buoy out there the size of a house, and it and the steel, and you would see it on the radar, and so I just steered for that thing all night until thank the Lord above that daylight came.
• 54:43
  Glen Jacobson: Uh-huh.
• 54:43
  Glen Jacobson: And we brought it into port, and we spent a couple days in port and uh recuperated and then headed on to Galveston to meet the trucker.
• 54:53
  Glen Jacobson: And yeah, and then and then flew to Kansas, met my dad, and my dad, he he he went along with me on the road trip out to Tacoma, and we got uh we get up on the on the overpasses and we take photos of the boat when it go by under the overpasses.
• 55:14
  Glen Jacobson: Oh, sweet.
• 55:15
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 55:16
  Glen Jacobson: Uh and then uh and then we brought it north from Tacoma to here and and started running that boat.
• 55:24
  Glen Jacobson: So that was ninety-six, ninety five?
• 55:26
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, yeah, I think that was ninety five.
• 55:28
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, yeah, 95 was the first year the C Venture 2 was in service.
• 55:32
  Douglas: So now you got over to double the capacity.
• 55:34
  Douglas: Are you still selling out?
• 55:36
  Glen Jacobson: No, no, but but we sold out a couple times, uh, but we had we had a lot more capacity, and and you know, Doug, back then, '95, there were so many people here compared to now.
• 55:53
  Glen Jacobson: That was uh RV parks, you know, Skagway had RV parks that are full, and Haines had RV parks that were full, hitch up, Fred and Shirley, uh, they were full, and uh and then and were full at uh Canal Marines or you know that that uh there and you you could put people you could put 50-60 people on that boat and put 50-60 people on that boat on the other end, and and maybe occasionally sell out, maybe occasionally sell out both ways, but there were just people and and at the end of the day, both ports with people getting off.
• 56:36
  Glen Jacobson: I was on the microphone and and this is a secret, you your radio audience can have this for free, but ask for the recommendation, yeah.
• 56:49
  Glen Jacobson: And in Alaska, it's magic because there's so you know, a huge state, but the roadway, you know, there's this triangle, and it's not that big by roadway, and people talk.
• 57:02
  Glen Jacobson: And uh the recommendation is key.
• 57:05
  Glen Jacobson: And if you ask for that recommendation, you what the way I say it is I say I need your help.
• 57:10
  Glen Jacobson: And then that perks a person's ears.
• 57:14
  Glen Jacobson: And if you say I need your help, then I mean if you're a decent human, yeah, I'll try to help you.
• 57:21
  Glen Jacobson: I'll try to help you.
• 57:22
  Glen Jacobson: What do I do?
• 57:22
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, and I all I have to do is tell somebody I enjoyed the trip.
• 57:26
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, I I need you to recommend this trip.
• 57:29
  Glen Jacobson: Uh, and it's kind of a punchline, but I say to everyone you meet.
• 57:33
  Glen Jacobson: And and so when you say it that way, you know, you chuckle, but it sticks with you.
• 57:38
  Glen Jacobson: And so yeah, that's been one of the things that I think has been one of the keys is asking for the recommendation and earning the recommendation because it doesn't do you any good if you don't earn that recommendation.
• 57:57
  Glen Jacobson: So, yeah, so that yeah, we were we worked with the Sea Venture 2 for um so '95 through 2001 is when we brought the Fjordland online.
• 58:18
  Glen Jacobson: And we ran both boats that one year in 2001.
• 58:25
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and that was too much.
• 58:29
  Glen Jacobson: That was too much.
• 58:30
  Glen Jacobson: We needed to either get bigger or get smaller.
• 58:33
  Glen Jacobson: And there had been some talk.
• 58:35
  Glen Jacobson: I remember uh Chilkoot Cruises was they ran fast ferry, and and we were in competition um, but uh there was some talk about them buying us out, and and whenever we'd have a conversation about it, I'd throw out some crazy number uh because I didn't want to sell.
• 59:02
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and then I remember after running that one year of running two boats, had two boats, we had uh we have three buses, we had 24 employees, and I lost 24 pounds that summer.
• 59:21
  Glen Jacobson: I did.
• 59:22
  Glen Jacobson: And I was and I'm I'm not kidding you, I was just as likely to be working at 4 p.m.
• 59:28
  Glen Jacobson: as 4 a.m.
• 59:29
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and I remember I was hungry, and but and I remember uh you know you didn't have time for a meal, didn't you couldn't stop for a meal, and uh and and it would and you wouldn't think about it at all.
• 59:42
  Glen Jacobson: You just didn't stop for a meal, and then it would occur to you dinner time.
• 59:46
  Glen Jacobson: Well, I'd missed lunch entirely, or it would occur to you at 10 p.m.
• 59:50
  Glen Jacobson: that uh oh gosh, we haven't had dinner yet, and I think I missed lunch too.
• 59:55
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, and but it was like that that year, and at the end of that year, uh I Bill Fletcher, he was managing at the time, and I went to Bill with my hat in my hand and I said, Let's figure out uh something reasonable here, something that works for you and works for me, and let's pound this out and make it happen.
• 1:00:17
  Glen Jacobson: And we did, and I sold for a very reasonable price that uh was very profitable for them, and it got me down to one boat, and so I was able to get small, and I don't and I think that's rare in the business world that you can actually need to get smaller and then put and be able to pull it off because a lot of times you have to grow.
• 1:00:39
  Douglas: Yeah, well, but a lot of people think you have to grow, but if you have a niche market like you do, and instead of taking on a whole bunch more employees, a lot more stress, uh you've got you're maintaining two boats instead of one.
• 1:00:53
  Douglas: If you can figure out the dynamics for just that one boat to meet the needs of you and your employees, you don't always bigger isn't always better.
• 1:01:02
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, I I see what you're saying, and and often it just it it it well I mean because you had another sports shop show up in town, uh, and you've been able to not grow this and still uh I this is off topic, and this is a Doug question, but this is a question I have got.
• 1:01:26
  Glen Jacobson: And I go to Juno a lot of times every week, and I have some downtime there, and I shop around, but your prices are right in line, and maybe and just as impressive, maybe more impressive, is your inventory here is every bit the same as Western Auto, and I don't know how you pull that off because you do not do their volume, and you have competition.
• 1:01:55
  Glen Jacobson: Uh so well, congratulations.
• 1:01:58
  Douglas: So well, I it it's what it's one of those that uh if you studied this in business school, they would tell you I'm doing everything incorrectly.
• 1:02:06
  Douglas: Okay, because I'm not getting enough turn for the for a right business, I don't get as many turns as I should.
• 1:02:15
  Douglas: I don't have the markup that I should on everything, but you know, living in Haines as long as you have everybody's very price sensitive to I can get this here.
• 1:02:24
  Douglas: I you you go on the internet, you can find out whatever the you can figure out what everybody's paying for the price of something.
• 1:02:29
  Douglas: And if you if you deviate from that very much, everybody thinks you're ripping them off.
• 1:02:36
  Douglas: And so it's it's either okay, we raise the prices or and have people think we're and so they're not shopping that much.
• 1:02:44
  Douglas: Or you put it at that, you you make a little less than you could.
• 1:02:49
  Douglas: I mean, I've I've got friends down south like, how do you how do you sell this for the same price I do?
• 1:02:53
  Douglas: I said, I make less money than you do on it.
• 1:02:55
  Douglas: And we've been fascinating.
• 1:02:56
  Glen Jacobson: But but you earn some trust, and you know that uh when the customer comes in here looking for uh uh Ganyan line, that they they may well buy so uh jacket or so that or that's the idea, and and it and it in pursuing that pricing, we belong to a buying group, worldwide buy group out of Seattle.
• 1:03:18
  Douglas: My dad joined in '94 before I moved back up here.
• 1:03:20
  Douglas: Oh, I never heard of this.
• 1:03:21
  Douglas: And so it's a cooperative buying group that they pool the buying capacity of the whole group to get better prices for everybody.
• 1:03:28
  Douglas: And so through that, I try to buy as much as I can direct from the manufacturer rather than through a distributor.
• 1:03:33
  Douglas: So you save a percentage off of that.
• 1:03:36
  Douglas: I'm not paying the distributor pricing.
• 1:03:37
  Douglas: I'm trying to put, I'm I'm a lot of times I'm paying distributor pricing for the stuff.
• 1:03:42
  Douglas: And so that helps offset some of that higher freight cost, but it's still, yeah, if you look at the inventory I have in this building, it should be much less than that.
• 1:03:51
  Douglas: But there's times it's fishing layer, sometimes it's four four to six weeks for me to get a fill-in order coming in.
• 1:03:58
  Douglas: As you know, our fish.
• 1:03:59
  Glen Jacobson: Well, you cultivate visitation because a customer has faith that it will be in stock.
• 1:04:05
  Glen Jacobson: Uh so hopefully.
• 1:04:07
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, well, you have to you have to earn that and and eventually it hopefully it uh eventually it pays.
• 1:04:15
  Glen Jacobson: I'm sure it does.
• 1:04:16
  Douglas: Obviously, it it does because we still we bet we we bet we've been lucky enough with between this and then adding the with the clothing next door and the groceries that at the end of the year we we can still pay everybody and have a little leftover for next year.
• 1:04:33
  Douglas: I hope so.
• 1:04:34
  Glen Jacobson: So if you do, you you you darn sure earned it if you have a little leftover.
• 1:04:39
  Douglas: But as you know, running a business in the small rural uh it can be tough.
• 1:04:43
  Douglas: That's hard.
• 1:04:44
  Douglas: A little different for me guys because well, but but you guys are a lot of a lot of my sales in here are based on tourists coming through.
• 1:04:53
  Douglas: That over-the-road traffic that you're yes, you know, if the RV parks aren't full, that's not good for your business.
• 1:04:59
  Douglas: It's also not good for my business if you don't have that over-the-road traffic.
• 1:05:03
  Douglas: That's a lot that's over.
• 1:05:05
  Douglas: I think you have a lot of Canadian traffic that's taking your uh your trip to Juneau and everything.
• 1:05:11
  Douglas: We we rely heavily on the Canadian market.
• 1:05:14
  Douglas: That's been something my dad started cultivating when he first opened the store and and a lot of built a lot of great relationships with people in the Yukon and British Columbia that come down here regularly.
• 1:05:24
  Douglas: And uh yeah, that's that was another thing.
• 1:05:27
  Douglas: This this inventory wouldn't be this much without the Canadian market as well.
• 1:05:31
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 1:05:31
  Douglas: So it all it all plays into it, but you you got you gotta get resourceful and look at uh how how can you how can you and like you're saying, asking for the recommendation.
• 1:05:43
  Douglas: Now something my with my dad, he he never advertised.
• 1:05:46
  Douglas: It was all word of mouth.
• 1:05:48
  Douglas: He would when he'd have his bait freezers when they were empty, people want to freeze fish.
• 1:05:53
  Douglas: Go ahead and freeze fish, it's free.
• 1:05:55
  Douglas: And people are gonna say, Hey, is this a place I can freeze fish?
• 1:05:59
  Douglas: Is this a place I can freeze?
• 1:05:59
  Douglas: Absolutely.
• 1:06:01
  Douglas: And once you do that, and there's families out of the Yukon that were on the fourth generation that's coming down here.
• 1:06:07
  Douglas: You just see these families, and I knew the parents and then their kids.
• 1:06:14
  Douglas: Then they had kids.
• 1:06:17
  Douglas: Now the kids are having kids.
• 1:06:18
  Douglas: And it's like, man, I'm looking at four th a lot of three and four generation people out of the Yukon that have been coming down here.
• 1:06:25
  Douglas: And every time you see them come in, that has that has an effect.
• 1:06:30
  Douglas: That's huge that that many generations are still coming to frequent your business.
• 1:06:37
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, we we we've we have felt uh the pinch from the Canadian market the last two years.
• 1:06:45
  Glen Jacobson: Last year, maybe maybe a little better this year, but nothing like it was three years ago.
• 1:06:51
  Glen Jacobson: And for so many years, you know, we we've done we need them, you know.
• 1:07:02
  Glen Jacobson: It's not only the White Horse people, but it's a government town, and they they they all have visiting friends and relatives.
• 1:07:10
  Glen Jacobson: Uh well, you know, a lot a lot of people in Whitehorse, they're gonna they'll live there for four, maybe seven years, and they move on.
• 1:07:18
  Glen Jacobson: But but they're gonna have a lot of visitors to the wild and exotic White Horse in the Yukon while they're there.
• 1:07:26
  Glen Jacobson: And so so it's maybe White Horse is only 22,000, 24,000 people, but it's really bigger than that when you count all the visiting friends and relatives.
• 1:07:38
  Douglas: Oh, is that right?
• 1:07:38
  Douglas: I think it's over 30,000.
• 1:07:39
  Glen Jacobson: So that tells you what a big market that is.
• 1:07:41
  Glen Jacobson: Between between the, you know, they get the European destination tourism that is arriving there, plus they get the visiting friends and relatives, plus they got nearly 30,000 people that live there uh is a happy good market for uh a little town like Haines and our businesses, and uh and so we should be careful and not hurl rocks and throw insults on those people.
• 1:08:11
  Douglas: And a lot of people from the other provinces and territories fly into Whitehorse, rent their RV, and do the tours around the Yukon, but they'll come down here as well.
• 1:08:19
  Douglas: You're Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, you know, Newfoundland.
• 1:08:22
  Douglas: Well, you have to.
• 1:08:24
  Glen Jacobson: You you do if you're doing that trip, you have to do the Haines Pass, you have to do the White Pass, and you have to take that handy short ferry run between these two ports.
• 1:08:34
  Glen Jacobson: You it it it all works.
• 1:08:37
  Douglas: Yep.
• 1:08:39
  Glen Jacobson: And we we and you should go to Juneau.
• 1:08:41
  Douglas: And you should go to June on the Fjordland.
• 1:08:42
  Douglas: Yeah, it's a day trip, it gets you back here tonight.
• 1:08:45
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:46
  Douglas: So what triggered that?
• 1:08:48
  Douglas: Was it the sale that you decided you're gonna get you're selling the Sea Venture 2 to Chilkat uh cruises?
• 1:08:55
  Douglas: Once you got out of that, because the the idea for the Fjordland was never to be a water taxi to Haines and Skagway.
• 1:09:02
  Douglas: You had the plan on that for Juno from the beginning, am I correct on that?
• 1:09:05
  Glen Jacobson: Or maybe Yeah, maybe kind of sort of that was maybe always in the back of our head.
• 1:09:10
  Glen Jacobson: And Allison, she was hot on the idea of going to Juno, and I was cool on it because I thought, you know, uh day trip to June, and it's gonna be so expensive to pull off.
• 1:09:26
  Glen Jacobson: I'm gonna have to be as expensive as the airplanes, and right now you can do it on LAB, and they got a lot of planes, and can I compete with them?
• 1:09:36
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and uh but Alison, she she she she came up with the name Fjord Express Dejuno.
• 1:09:49
  Glen Jacobson: She came up with the name Fjord Land for the boat.
• 1:09:53
  Glen Jacobson: I love the name Fjord Land, and I like the business name Fjord Express Dejuno as well.
• 1:09:58
  Glen Jacobson: But uh she was convinced that Fjord Express De Juno would work.
• 1:10:04
  Glen Jacobson: And I was not convinced that it would work, but uh, you know, we had the we had two RV parks in Skagway, we had two RV parks in Haines that were had there was no building this business because with building the the water taxi, the Haines Skagway water taxi, it took three years.
• 1:10:31
  Glen Jacobson: But for and I did not anticipate this magic, was that the business already, as far as those we we had people ready to sell this trip to Juneau.
• 1:10:43
  Glen Jacobson: And and and because they had faith in us, they had faith in the product we would we would deliver, but m just as important, Doug, and maybe more important, Doug, is that if they sold a ticket to Juneau, that that I'm taking them to Juneau, I'm bringing them back, and they're gonna spend another night in the R V park that they might not have otherwise.
• 1:11:08
  Douglas: So that's if they took their RV to Juneau, they're probably not coming back, they're probably going south.
• 1:11:13
  Glen Jacobson: Right.
• 1:11:13
  Glen Jacobson: If they take their RV to Juneau, right, they're they're they're they're on their way.
• 1:11:17
  Glen Jacobson: It's one way.
• 1:11:18
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 1:11:18
  Glen Jacobson: And so this uh this is so it's hindsight.
• 1:11:24
  Glen Jacobson: It's 2020.
• 1:11:26
  Glen Jacobson: I was not convinced of all of these things going into it, and uh that was the designing of the fjord land, the building of the fjord land.
• 1:11:43
  Glen Jacobson: I don't know if this is appropriate or not, but I'm gonna tell you right now, in two thousand dollars, that was seven hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars to build that boat.
• 1:11:57
  Glen Jacobson: And that was more debt than I was comfortable getting into, and uh I felt like I uh I was I was being too complacent and too content uh and that was a while ago, and that was it was not easy to put that those funds together, and it was not easy, it was not easy to compromise.
• 1:12:33
  Glen Jacobson: It would be it would have it was tempting at stages to you building a one-off boat, and Fjord Land has no sisters, she never will, and I'll tell you why, she's never gonna have a sister is because there's nobody as crazy as me and Allison that they they if if they put that kind of money into a boat, they will they want it to they don't want it to be a 49 passenger boat like mine, they want it to be 80 passengers or 120 passengers, and so it'll pay.
• 1:13:01
  Glen Jacobson: And if if when you design a boat for 80 or 120 passengers, you you what you'll do you'll do wider holes and you will put hard chines and planing surfaces underneath there so that you can get your efficiency by getting up on top and reduce it reducing your drag and you'll plane, but when you do that, the cost is smack, smack, smack.
• 1:13:23
  Glen Jacobson: It's a hard bang against those planing surfaces and those hard chines.
• 1:13:28
  Glen Jacobson: And the their the their fjord land is the nicest riding 65-foot vessel that was built specifically for Lin Canal, will have no sisters because of those things, because uh it I don't know what it would cost today, but it would be more than it was in 2000.
• 1:13:52
  Glen Jacobson: At least be double.
• 1:13:54
  Glen Jacobson: At least and uh so you would not put today you would not put that kind of money, still you you you you would you would you would not put that kind of money and expect to get a return into those few of passengers you would look for a different market, and so uh with when we built that so yeah, back up a little bit about okay, so Allison talked Glenn into it, and Allison came up with these beautiful names that I love for the boat and the business, and then I was getting excited about it because I was working with a top-notch designer who the more I talked to him, the more faith that I had and the more confidence.
• 1:14:40
  Glen Jacobson: This is gonna be what you wanted.
• 1:14:41
  Glen Jacobson: This is the real deal, and I'm spending money wisely, and I've got experience now that I didn't have when I got into this business.
• 1:14:50
  Glen Jacobson: And uh, I knew it was gonna work after uh, you know, and the building project itself was just exciting, and then the sea trials were like magic because oh my gosh, you can just feel, and then uh so um when we got the boat here.
• 1:15:10
  Douglas: Well, let's back up a little bit because this morning you sent me the letter you wrote to your dad about the trip up from San Diego to Haines.
• 1:15:20
  Douglas: And it was you and Leslie Ross.
• 1:15:22
  Douglas: Correct.
• 1:15:23
  Douglas: That and Tom Jackson.
• 1:15:24
  Douglas: And Tom Jackson.
• 1:15:25
  Douglas: Yes, and when it's not Tom Jackson, I was like, I had no idea what Tom Jackson.
• 1:15:29
  Douglas: But the three I didn't know he went down on that with you.
• 1:15:33
  Glen Jacobson: You know, uh, you know, he was a good neighbor in the harbor, and uh and he's a gifted mechanic, yes, and he helped me so many times, and uh and so and he was following along with me designing this boat and the building project, and I was keeping him updated, and then uh just at one point he says, Hey, I want to come too, and I don't want your time.
• 1:16:03
  Glen Jacobson: Of course, you know that the the there's only one answer is is right, of course.
• 1:16:08
  Glen Jacobson: Well, let me uh let me keep you apprised of the dates.
• 1:16:12
  Glen Jacobson: And so he flew down and he got there two or three days before we uh before we started sailing north.
• 1:16:20
  Glen Jacobson: That uh yeah, we got it all outfitted and things we got we put in some temporary tankage, and when you drive by the harbor today, there is an oil bin.
• 1:16:35
  Glen Jacobson: Well, it's inside the oil shed now, but there's a big square oil, uh big square bin that you dump your used oil in, and that is a Coca-Cola syrup container.
• 1:16:47
  Glen Jacobson: And uh we got two of those.
• 1:16:50
  Glen Jacobson: Uh is that what you use for your extra fuel?
• 1:16:52
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, that's what and we strapped that in and bolted it in.
• 1:16:55
  Glen Jacobson: And uh, and Tom, he's he's a gifted fiberglass guy, and he helped us do some uh some fiberglass tricks there to make sure everything was was wedged in nice and snug.
• 1:17:06
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and so we had it, we have five gallons the the vessel carries five hundred gallons, and we had five hundred gallons of spare fuel on the deck so that we'd feel safe uh uh having having more options on that delivery.
• 1:17:22
  Glen Jacobson: It's a thousand miles coast to uh Seattle and then another thousand miles to here.
• 1:17:28
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and you read that letter earlier, and it's the the letter is it reads kind of dramatic, but uh, and there was some dramatic moments, there's no doubt about that.
• 1:17:41
  Glen Jacobson: But mostly it was a really pleasurable trip that that we uh we we had, I think, every night but two, we had dinner in town sitting down.
• 1:17:54
  Glen Jacobson: We didn't have to cook on the boat, and uh we'd have nice runs during the day, and we have dinner in town at night, and the cell phones were brand new at that time, so Allison was driving a car north.
• 1:18:06
  Glen Jacobson: Uh we bought a Ford doesn't matter, it was a full Ford station wagon in um in Arizona at Libby and Anna's aunt's house.
• 1:18:20
  Glen Jacobson: And um, and we were and we were and it drove that from from Phoenix to San Diego, and Libby was with me.
• 1:18:29
  Glen Jacobson: And I don't know why it was just Libby, but Alison had the other two kids, and Libby and me were driving in that car, and I was listening to talk radio, some stupid show, and and uh and it came up in conversation that uh uh they were having an argument on talk radio, and and the guy says, Well, yeah, I bet you believe in Santa Claus.
• 1:18:52
  Glen Jacobson: Well, I'm here to tell you there's no such thing as Santa Claus.
• 1:18:56
  Glen Jacobson: How old is Libby?
• 1:18:59
  Glen Jacobson: Oh my gosh.
• 1:19:01
  Glen Jacobson: So the catch was brand new.
• 1:19:03
  Glen Jacobson: So Libby would have been four um when we were doing that.
• 1:19:10
  Glen Jacobson: And uh yeah, this is why these podcasts go so long, Doug, because uh where were oh we were delivering the boat.
• 1:19:21
  Glen Jacobson: Deliver the boat.
• 1:19:22
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, but we gotta we gotta take these cross, we gotta we gotta take these other little roads along the way, Glenn.
• 1:19:28
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, well, I remember feeling pretty crummy that night, but uh uh well I'll have to ask Libby sometime if if I got away with it because I kind of shined it on and I said they they'll say anything on radio for effect, get listeners.
• 1:19:45
  Glen Jacobson: But uh I don't know.
• 1:19:48
  Glen Jacobson: I said, you'd be a good little girl, we'll see what Santa Claus brings to you.
• 1:19:51
  Glen Jacobson: Um we left San Diego, took the boat, signed off on the paper, and uh it was April 1st, and I re I noted that uh when I was making a log entry coming out of San Diego Harbor, that it was April 1st, April Fool's Day, which is uh I made that same log entry one.
• 1:20:17
  Glen Jacobson: That's what I was thinking.
• 1:20:18
  Glen Jacobson: You started both of them with the sea venture in n in in 95 that uh I left uh Naples, Florida on April 1st.
• 1:20:27
  Glen Jacobson: And uh but it it occurred to me, and and um and we made uh that first night was one of the most dramatic.
• 1:20:36
  Glen Jacobson: Actually, we made all the way to Morrow Bay, and that's right at Point Concepcion, and uh and the wind comes up there, but uh uh we pushed it a little too hard.
• 1:20:48
  Glen Jacobson: We had good running all day, and then we had we had ten more miles to go to make Morro Bay, and we had plenty of daylight to do it, and that's when the wind came up, and then it got black and it got dark, and we and they were, you know, it was like there was there was like a good solid seven-foot sea out there, which is right on the edge of, you know, what we can, you know, we have to slow way down in a seven-foot sea, but there was a 12-foot swell with it, and so these things were just, you know, when they'd line up, you know, then you'd have a you you'd have a 17 or 19-footer that uh, and they'd rise up out of the dark, and you'd kind of see the foam, uh, and so we could only steer one course, and that was straight into the waves.
• 1:21:34
  Glen Jacobson: And we and so we had 10 more miles to go, but we ended up having to go 20 miles, and it took us more than three hours to do those 20 miles so that we could get it on our stern and make the turn to come into Morro Bay.
• 1:21:49
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so Allison was on shore and uh and she went to the Coast Guard office and told them that we were out there and that we were having trouble getting in.
• 1:22:00
  Glen Jacobson: And so we got a call from the Coast Guard, and they uh they said, ooh, said uh well we got you on radar and we're gonna keep track of you and we're gonna call you every 15 minutes and uh top and quarter past and bottom of the hour, and and um, and then they said, Oh, we're gonna send a rollover boat.
• 1:22:19
  Glen Jacobson: We'll send a rollover boat to uh at to to bring you through the the the breakwater at into port and perfect.
• 1:22:29
  Glen Jacobson: So they did and I appreciated that.
• 1:22:33
  Glen Jacobson: I mean uh we had we had good navigation and we had electronic charts and we but it was nice to just confirm where you are and have some company and and uh and so then we ended up but Morrow Bay's magic, man.
• 1:22:54
  Glen Jacobson: We ended up like I think we were there for three days, and and you know, we were a workboat in a working port, and so and people liked the boat and it was new, and so we had lots of visitors, and so it was we weren't we weren't tourists in port, and uh it was that was uh that was a great experience to be in a strange port and uh and all these fishermen and all these workboats and everybody coming by to to to see our little project.
• 1:23:24
  Glen Jacobson: And so we enjoy and so and and ever since I've had a soft spot for Morro Bay, and I uh and I get back there often enough and relive the memories of uh uh coming into Port at Morrow Bay.
• 1:23:38
  Glen Jacobson: And we we so we we out of Morrow Bay uh we had we pushed it again all the way past San Francisco and uh and then it got dark on us and we came into I guess that's Fort Bragg.
• 1:23:59
  Glen Jacobson: And then uh and then we had good running after that.
• 1:24:04
  Glen Jacobson: I remember uh I remember we were off the mouth of the Columbia River, and man, that's a big river, and you don't know that that's a big river.
• 1:24:17
  Glen Jacobson: But we were I don't know, we we were eight miles offshore and on the mouth of the Columbia River, and we had a good solid four knots of set pushing us offshore that far out.
• 1:24:32
  Glen Jacobson: And I remember all that day, you know, we were right on the edge of the chop and the the seas of keeping our speed, and we we just kept her at about 18 knots, and we were just and I was so proud of that boat, and uh I knew I had a good one.
• 1:24:50
  Glen Jacobson: Uh that uh I don't, you know, it it's not foolproof and it needs to be treated with care, but uh boy, I just raised my confidence level and in that uh I love that boat.
• 1:25:07
  Glen Jacobson: And it's not my boat, it's catches boat.
• 1:25:12
  Douglas: Yeah, so that's that's so you you bring that up here in 2001, and then you're basically raising the kids on the boat.
• 1:25:22
  Douglas: I mean, they're from day one, they're pretty much on the boat, and you and Alison and the three kids and other friends and employees over the years.
• 1:25:32
  Douglas: Ketch is the one that kind of all the I think all of your kids had their captain's license, right?
• 1:25:38
  Douglas: All of them were able to run the boat.
• 1:25:40
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, they could all run the boat.
• 1:25:42
  Glen Jacobson: Libby and Libby and Ketch both got their captain's license, and that step never interested Anna, but Libby and Ketch uh both got their captain's license and young.
• 1:25:54
  Glen Jacobson: Both of them got them young, I don't remember exactly when, but uh uh but they got their captain's licenses young and catch he would and Libby Libby would take the boat back and forth Haines to Skagway at the end of the day.
• 1:26:10
  Glen Jacobson: Uh and which which made it great for it is nice to have relief and get off the boat in Haines and go home and not and and not make that extra run to Skagway and back because it's a long day and it's nice to get that relief.
• 1:26:27
  Glen Jacobson: But Libby started doing that, and then catch them doing that, and then uh so yeah, both those guys uh did their captain's license.
• 1:26:37
  Glen Jacobson: Anna she visits uh every year, and every year when she's back, she is very possessive of the fjord land, and uh she will uh she notices things and she wants, she makes suggestions and notices uh what can be improved and uh gives the the crew tips.
• 1:27:05
  Glen Jacobson: And so she still she still feels a possession towards the business and that boat.
• 1:27:14
  Douglas: So what was uh what was that like when were were you ready to sell the boat and catch stepped up or is that something like Ketch came to you and said, hey dad, I want to buy kind of land?
• 1:27:27
  Glen Jacobson: Um I was ready uh I was ready to retire and um maybe not retire is the right word, but I was ready for change and uh I wanted to get out of the that daily business and I had two very qualified buyers that were looking at buying the business and uh catch told me, he says, I want to buy.
• 1:27:59
  Glen Jacobson: And and I don't remember exactly what I told him, but I told him something like, no, you don't want to buy it.
• 1:28:06
  Glen Jacobson: There's so much stress and there's so much that you won't sleep at night.
• 1:28:12
  Glen Jacobson: And there's uh there's there's never there's no end to the worries.
• 1:28:17
  Glen Jacobson: And that uh so I said this year, I said we're gonna run it this year, and I'm gonna sell it in the fall.
• 1:28:25
  Glen Jacobson: And I want you to think every day about whether you really want to buy this.
• 1:28:31
  Glen Jacobson: And he did all of the maintenance, all the extra stuff, and the dry docks and the Coast Guard interactions.
• 1:28:39
  Glen Jacobson: And uh every year, for one reason or another, you are working on that boat desperately and diligently at 3 a.m.
• 1:28:48
  Glen Jacobson: Uh, trying to get ready for tomorrow morning, and tomorrow morning comes quick, and uh, and so he was involved with all of those.
• 1:28:59
  Glen Jacobson: Uh and at the end of the year, he was still convinced that he wanted to buy it, and so he got a little sliver of a family discount, and this fall will be his fourth payment of five.
• 1:29:22
  Glen Jacobson: So he's pretty well committed at this point.
• 1:29:26
  Glen Jacobson: And Doug, it's been the you know, I worried about selling it to a family member, but it's been the best for me because I get I get to run that boat.
• 1:29:41
  Glen Jacobson: You still get to run the boat, yeah.
• 1:29:43
  Glen Jacobson: One or two days a week.
• 1:29:44
  Glen Jacobson: It's perfect.
• 1:29:45
  Glen Jacobson: It's on your schedule, not everybody else's.
• 1:29:47
  Glen Jacobson: I was apprehensive about selling it to a family member, but uh I'm glad to that I can still be pleasantly involved in the business and not over involved.
• 1:30:13
  Glen Jacobson: Uh but there was twice this summer as that I was working on that boat at 3 a.m.
• 1:30:21
  Glen Jacobson: Uh so that so catch had some help those nights.
• 1:30:27
  Glen Jacobson: And he's a he's a he's a better mechanic than I am, at least naturally he's a better mechanic, but there's still occasionally there was once this year that I was able to tell him something that was helpful to him while he was having a uh he was he was having a stressful repair going on in Juneau in the middle of the day.
• 1:30:52
  Glen Jacobson: So so I I I I can still full and that feels good to be able to do that if you can't.
• 1:30:59
  Douglas: And it and it's gotta be good too that you rate you raised your kids on the boat, and they still have that, after all that, they still have that catch wants to take over.
• 1:31:09
  Douglas: He will he buys it, he's running the business.
• 1:31:12
  Douglas: Anna is making notes and trying to improve with it.
• 1:31:16
  Douglas: There's Libby, I think probably the same way.
• 1:31:18
  Douglas: She she loves that business, but there's got to be some pride for you and and Allison that your kids, after spending that much time, because a lot of kids like, yeah, peace out.
• 1:31:28
  Douglas: I've I grew up on this, I don't want to see.
• 1:31:30
  Douglas: I saw my parents struggle with this and all the hours they put in.
• 1:31:33
  Douglas: I don't want any part of it.
• 1:31:34
  Douglas: Yeah, but it's got to make you feel good that they care that much about it and want to carry that on.
• 1:31:40
  Glen Jacobson: Well, Doug, that is I'll take that observation, but it's it's probably it's a great feeling for them to take all that on, but it's even better feeling when he makes that payment.
• 1:31:54
  Glen Jacobson: Point taken.
• 1:32:01
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 1:32:01
  Glen Jacobson: Point take it.
• 1:32:02
  Glen Jacobson: Actually, well, both both both are both are good feelings.
• 1:32:06
  Glen Jacobson: Both are both are rewarding in their own ways for sure.
• 1:32:10
  Douglas: I see his side of the when he makes the payment.
• 1:32:13
  Douglas: Yeah.
• 1:32:13
  Douglas: Dang it.
• 1:32:15
  Douglas: Only one more after this year.
• 1:32:17
  Douglas: You only got one more catch.
• 1:32:18
  Douglas: Then you then you can you can you and Marty can go travel around and spend that money on you.
• 1:32:25
  Douglas: Yep.
• 1:32:28
  Glen Jacobson: So yeah.
• 1:32:29
  Glen Jacobson: Well, Doug.
• 1:32:32
  Glen Jacobson: Let's see.
• 1:32:33
  Glen Jacobson: So we got the delivery in, we've done this, we've got this boat business going, we got it sold.
• 1:32:40
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 1:32:40
  Glen Jacobson: Now are we signing off?
• 1:32:43
  Glen Jacobson: I don't what have what have we what have we missed, Glenn?
• 1:32:46
  Glen Jacobson: I got I got well, I have to I want to talk about the podcast business a little bit.
• 1:32:54
  Douglas: Okay.
• 1:32:55
  Douglas: I want to I don't know much about it.
• 1:32:56
  Douglas: I'm I'm still well feeling my way along on this.
• 1:33:00
  Glen Jacobson: So when um when you got notes here, this scares you.
• 1:33:06
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, I got some notes here.
• 1:33:08
  Glen Jacobson: Well, I want to tell you what my favorite podcasts have been.
• 1:33:12
  Glen Jacobson: And uh the first one I listened to was Lily Boron's, and uh and I I I wanted to hear it because I saw her name and I thought it was going to be good, but she hit it out of the park.
• 1:33:27
  Glen Jacobson: That one, that one, that one went on, and you couldn't turn it off, or I couldn't, but uh and I maybe the reason I loved her so much is because I learned so much uh about her that I didn't know and about her family.
• 1:33:42
  Glen Jacobson: But uh, but she has a great delivery, and that was a really I think that might be my favorite.
• 1:33:49
  Glen Jacobson: But Marnie's was also good, and I listed that on the Al Can last spring.
• 1:33:56
  Glen Jacobson: On your way up, yeah.
• 1:33:57
  Glen Jacobson: Okay, and uh uh and and then uh I couldn't believe how long hers was because it went by, you know, it was perfect for being on the road, you know, you passed some time, but then I can I couldn't believe that you know I looked down at the little screen thing and I what I'm two hours and 40 minutes in this game.
• 1:34:17
  Glen Jacobson: I knew I would love Bart Henderson's and I did.
• 1:34:22
  Glen Jacobson: Uh but the yeah and Sean Dogs was I've heard all of those stories before, but it was fun to hear him recount them again.
• 1:34:35
  Glen Jacobson: And I'd forgotten, uh you know, it probably makes us normal.
• 1:34:41
  Glen Jacobson: I forget these stories, but I talked to I I've known Sean since Sitka, and so uh, you know, I've got a little bit of history, yeah.
• 1:34:48
  Glen Jacobson: I've got some history with him, and I know his stories, but I'd forgotten some of them, but but uh that was a favorite for sure.
• 1:34:56
  Glen Jacobson: Well, so um and but I haven't heard very many of you.
• 1:35:07
  Glen Jacobson: There's a lot of them.
• 1:35:08
  Glen Jacobson: I mean you're number 49.
• 1:35:10
  Glen Jacobson: I'm 49.
• 1:35:11
  Glen Jacobson: So I've I've probably heard six of them.
• 1:35:13
  Glen Jacobson: I liked your mother's, uh, I'm not all the way through that one yet, but I'll have to wait for the road trip to finish that one.
• 1:35:21
  Glen Jacobson: And I'm looking forward to Charlie DeWitt's and uh and I've probably heard all Stuart's stories too, but I'll I'll I I'll look forward to it because uh yeah, so Safety Al.
• 1:35:35
  Glen Jacobson: Um I saw him on your list the other day, so it'll be good to get caught up with that.
• 1:35:44
  Glen Jacobson: And what time is it?
• 1:35:50
  Glen Jacobson: Oh my gosh, it's we're we're an hour and a half into it anyway.
• 1:35:55
  Douglas: See, you thought you were gonna be going for a drink after an hour.
• 1:35:58
  Glen Jacobson: You know, it's 5 30 when we started.
• 1:36:00
  Glen Jacobson: We started at 5 30.
• 1:36:01
  Glen Jacobson: If if if I got some beer in the truck, so if it goes if it ends up going too long, we'll stop and crack one.
• 1:36:10
  Glen Jacobson: But uh this is not a question, but I want to congratulate or thank you for your service as a mayor.
• 1:36:23
  Glen Jacobson: It was a hard time that you had and uh I don't know if there's a right way, but you handled your your job as a mayor was reassuring to us all when we lost Janae and David and I cannot imagine what that w would have been like, and there's no right way to handle it, but you handled it with communication and people need to talk.
• 1:37:02
  Glen Jacobson: But I knew them both.
• 1:37:06
  Glen Jacobson: So did you, so did you.
• 1:37:08
  Douglas: You had a do you want to get into that?
• 1:37:10
  Glen Jacobson: Because you had a I want to get into it just there's one there's a few other things I want to do.
• 1:37:14
  Glen Jacobson: There's a very close connection there is that, you know, I got to know Janae because she was a deck hand for us, and I didn't know her before that, but she's a treasure.
• 1:37:26
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so I knew her as an employee, and I'm grateful for that chance.
• 1:37:32
  Glen Jacobson: I knew David a lot better and you knew David, but I'm I'm here to tell you he's the greatest man I ever met.
• 1:37:45
  Glen Jacobson: And what his gift was and the potential he had, but everybody that was around David, and David was around us because you couldn't not be around David, and people he brought people from everywhere around, and we gathered, and every we all had fun, and we all were the person that we wanted to be when we were around David.
• 1:38:17
  Glen Jacobson: We were better than we were, and we were our best selves around him, and so now we all have that lesson to take away.
• 1:38:29
  Glen Jacobson: We can try to be that best version of ourselves, but that man was bound for greatness, and the planet needed him, and he losing him it's a great personal loss, but he's what the world needed, and what a tragedy to lose that young man.
• 1:39:01
  Douglas: Absolutely.
• 1:39:03
  Glen Jacobson: So David Simmons, we say his name out loud and we shed.
• 1:39:07
  Douglas: Yep, and that's you know when we had that conversation with Randy, and every time I talk to Randy, he's like anytime that I get a chance to to tell people about what a special person David was.
• 1:39:20
  Douglas: It's it's a good it's a good day for me.
• 1:39:25
  Glen Jacobson: Because yeah, he was well that was a everything very hard time for our town.
• 1:39:31
  Glen Jacobson: Everything that you said, but nope, and and so with you having that close your house looks towards the slide.
• 1:39:41
  Douglas: Yeah, it does.
• 1:39:43
  Douglas: Is that does that get any easier waking up and seeing that view?
• 1:39:47
  Glen Jacobson: Well, I say his name, and uh it bothers Allison uh a lot more than me.
• 1:39:54
  Glen Jacobson: I'm able to compartmentalize it more.
• 1:39:57
  Glen Jacobson: Uh the that that view is important to me because I I like to see the viewer land arrive and uh look for it to clear battery point, and so I like that spot.
• 1:40:13
  Glen Jacobson: When I'm operating the boat, I take my hat off.
• 1:40:17
  Glen Jacobson: When I go past there, I don't say anything about the tragedy on the microphone.
• 1:40:21
  Glen Jacobson: But but uh but uh I take my hat off and when I'm in my skiff I say his name out loud when I go by there and and none of it makes me feel any better.
• 1:40:36
  Glen Jacobson: But we do these things.
• 1:40:40
  Glen Jacobson: When uh how many years was that how what is a mayor term?
• 1:40:48
  Glen Jacobson: Three years, and so that was right in the middle when we had that tragedy.
• 1:40:53
  Douglas: I was one month in.
• 1:40:54
  Glen Jacobson: You were one month in.
• 1:40:56
  Douglas: It was one because I was I was out of town for the first meeting where I was supposed to take my oath of office, and I got back, and since it was COVID, I was quarantining at my house.
• 1:41:07
  Douglas: And I'd been on Zoom meetings and some stuff like uh with Alaska Municipal League was happening at that time, and so I was doing the new newly elected training and things like that with Alaska Municipal League.
• 1:41:22
  Douglas: And Alecka, she's like, I was talking to her quite a bit on phone, can't go anywhere, and she's I need to get we need to get you sworn in.
• 1:41:30
  Douglas: So she came, I can't remember the first or the second of November.
• 1:41:34
  Douglas: She comes to my house and in the entry, she swears me in as mayor.
• 1:41:38
  Douglas: And that was yeah, so it's a month and like two days from when I was sworn in that we have the slide.
• 1:41:45
  Glen Jacobson: No business as usual break-in period.
• 1:41:48
  Douglas: Yeah, no, none of that.
• 1:41:50
  Douglas: That was uh yeah, trial by fire right there.
• 1:41:54
  Douglas: And it was just, you know, the day before David had been here picking up a gun that his dad sent him to go deer hunting with.
• 1:42:01
  Douglas: And he was just so excited to have that that rifle that his dad shipped up to him and to go out and be able to put food on the table and and then next day he's gone.
• 1:42:18
  Glen Jacobson: Now I know that one thing that I have to mention for sure is when we started this business, um our first employee was after we had Anna, our first child, and our first employee was Leslie Ross.
• 1:42:41
  Glen Jacobson: She was your first employee.
• 1:42:43
  Glen Jacobson: Yes.
• 1:42:43
  Glen Jacobson: Really?
• 1:42:44
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, and uh we were so fortunate to get, I don't know.
• 1:42:52
  Glen Jacobson: So Leslie, how many years?
• 1:42:55
  Glen Jacobson: Was did you work for us?
• 1:42:56
  Glen Jacobson: 22 years?
• 1:42:57
  Glen Jacobson: Was it that long?
• 1:42:58
  Glen Jacobson: Might maybe uh well, counting fell in more than that, but yeah, she was our babysitter and deck hand, and she had a full-time job between those two.
• 1:43:10
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and then she was our captain, and then and she was a really good captain until she became a mother.
• 1:43:24
  Glen Jacobson: And I and uh and it Leslie she tells you this is the truth.
• 1:43:29
  Glen Jacobson: She would after she was a mother, and the weather was gnarly out there, and this Lynn Canal is gnarly out there as often as not.
• 1:43:36
  Glen Jacobson: Uh-huh.
• 1:43:37
  Glen Jacobson: And then she would she would get uh she would get uh nervous for her baby and uh unreasonably uh nervous for her uh leaving a a an orphaned child.
• 1:43:50
  Glen Jacobson: Child, yeah, yes.
• 1:43:51
  Glen Jacobson: So uh, but uh I say those things, but she knows it's true.
• 1:43:57
  Glen Jacobson: And uh but uh but she still is a fabulous fill-in for us.
• 1:44:04
  Glen Jacobson: And she looks like she still comes in and helps you out, doesn't she?
• 1:44:07
  Glen Jacobson: Well, she does, and she's uh uh she she she let her captain's license go, but she'll come and deck hand for us and and and when uh when we come into Port and Juneau and she's my substitute deck hand, uh she already knows this drill by now, but I I I'm on the microphone as we're coming into the harbor, and then I'll do a little potty dance and say, oh man, I got I got I need help, and I would and I look at the crowd and I say point my fingers at individuals, I say eeny meeny, miny moe, and I say you and uh and Leslie points at herself and shakes her head and and I have her come and dock the boat while I pretend to go to the restroom.
• 1:44:49
  Glen Jacobson: But uh when uh she's uh when she's ever she's on the boat, I do that to her and make her go through that drill, and then but she also substitute deck hands for us still, and her daughter Rio is is our senior employee now, not counting Super George, uh but uh but Rio's been a deck hand for us for a number of years now.
• 1:45:19
  Glen Jacobson: And but yeah, so uh shout out to Leslie Ross and all her help, and uh she is a fixture in the Fjordland tribe and the tribal culture.
• 1:45:36
  Douglas: Um so yeah, shout out to Leslie and all her help managing and but this is is as you're talking about something came up to me, Glenn, if I can interrupt you for a second on your questions because I've got another question.
• 1:45:50
  Douglas: How hard or easy was it, or was it both running a business with your wife?
• 1:45:59
  Douglas: Oh because you got those throughout the day.
• 1:46:03
  Douglas: Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's gotta be there's in ways that it helps, and there's other times it's probably really, really hard.
• 1:46:09
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, I can't think of the ways it's hard, Doug, because seriously, we are we kind of we do different things like this morning I got up early because uh because I had business at the ferry terminal, and so I set my alarm for 5 a.m.
• 1:46:24
  Glen Jacobson: and uh uh and my alarm goes off, and Alison's already working at five, and that's 5050.
• 1:46:32
  Glen Jacobson: If you set your alarm for 5:30, she'll always be working.
• 1:46:34
  Glen Jacobson: If you set your alarm for 5, it's 5050, whether she's but she was working this morning.
• 1:46:39
  Glen Jacobson: She handles details and is ahead of things that uh are important to any business, and often I'm asleep while she's doing those things, so uh, so that is easy.
• 1:46:56
  Glen Jacobson: The we we both have an intense interest in the business, so we're always talking about it, and uh so I don't know if that's good or bad, but we both enjoy talking about that and uh passes the time and long road trips that uh that that that there is that to talk about.
• 1:47:19
  Glen Jacobson: But um yeah, I can't right now it's not coming to me the difficulties of being she's a she's a good partner and she works hard, so yeah.
• 1:47:31
  Glen Jacobson: So uh it definitely holds up her end.
• 1:47:35
  Douglas: Even from the outside, it seems like your guys' skill sets complement each other very well.
• 1:47:40
  Douglas: Thank you.
• 1:47:41
  Douglas: Yeah, I think that's you can see that look good.
• 1:47:43
  Douglas: The things you do, the things she does.
• 1:47:45
  Douglas: I think there's a lot of compliment, it's very complimentary the way that you guys work together with the business.
• 1:47:51
  Douglas: And I think you're both fortunate for that.
• 1:47:56
  Glen Jacobson: When uh before we go, I have I've got a list of the crazies because okay, because let's get into the crazies, okay.
• 1:48:05
  Glen Jacobson: Okay, Doug, I have done myself more than 400,000 miles on Lynn Canal.
• 1:48:12
  Glen Jacobson: 400,000 miles.
• 1:48:13
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 1:48:14
  Glen Jacobson: And the Fjord land has done over 500,000, but closer to 550,000 miles.
• 1:48:20
  Glen Jacobson: 550,000 that's and so for the fjord land, that girl, she that would be the equivalent of going around the world for those 21, 22 times.
• 1:48:35
  Glen Jacobson: Uh and so we've seen a lot of things.
• 1:48:41
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 1:48:41
  Glen Jacobson: It's high speed and never hit a whale.
• 1:48:45
  Glen Jacobson: Never hit a whale.
• 1:48:46
  Glen Jacobson: But not with the fjord land.
• 1:48:49
  Glen Jacobson: Never hit a whale with the fjord land.
• 1:48:51
  Glen Jacobson: We see a lot of whales, but uh, but I hit one whale twice with the sea venture too.
• 1:49:00
  Douglas: You hit the same whale twice?
• 1:49:02
  Glen Jacobson: And I almost hit that whale at least a dozen times, but it's a crazy whale.
• 1:49:06
  Glen Jacobson: And whales, I'm convinced that you'd never hit a healthy one.
• 1:49:10
  Glen Jacobson: Uh, that if one gets hit by a ship, or that uh in my experience, it must be a sick whale or something wrong with it.
• 1:49:19
  Glen Jacobson: But uh there was something wrong with this one whale, and it came back two years in a row, same whale to the Skagway Channel, and the whale was nuts.
• 1:49:29
  Glen Jacobson: And every year I'd almost hit that whale at least a dozen times.
• 1:49:35
  Douglas: So is it just breaching in front of the boat?
• 1:49:37
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, it's just always yeah, and just always right.
• 1:49:39
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, just right in front of the boat, and uh over and over and over again, and it was just you know, pass boat full of passengers, you got eight eighty people on board, and you're cruising along six times, and here's the whale, and it's not up there away, it's just right there.
• 1:49:53
  Glen Jacobson: Right you're looking right down on it, and it's just neutral, neutral.
• 1:49:57
  Glen Jacobson: And uh oh, what in the world?
• 1:49:59
  Glen Jacobson: Happened up there?
• 1:50:01
  Glen Jacobson: Well, we almost hit a whale again.
• 1:50:04
  Glen Jacobson: We almost hit a whale again.
• 1:50:07
  Glen Jacobson: It's the same whale.
• 1:50:08
  Glen Jacobson: And but I hit him twice.
• 1:50:10
  Glen Jacobson: I left two good marks across his back.
• 1:50:12
  Glen Jacobson: And then the third year he didn't come back.
• 1:50:15
  Glen Jacobson: And I bet that whale got hit by a ship somewhere.
• 1:50:19
  Glen Jacobson: But I did not miss that one.
• 1:50:22
  Glen Jacobson: I did not miss that one.
• 1:50:24
  Glen Jacobson: But that is the only.
• 1:50:25
  Glen Jacobson: But on my boat, I often get asked that question, you had a hit one?
• 1:50:31
  Glen Jacobson: And and I've had a lot of them hit me, you know, just even just the other just uh two weeks ago.
• 1:50:37
  Glen Jacobson: Uh we were shut down, and uh and there was a bubble net group, and they came up right beside the boat, and this whale gave us a good jarring.
• 1:50:49
  Glen Jacobson: But it was after they surfaced, and the whale really didn't hit us, but one of his buddies bumped him into but it moved us, I mean, it moved us pretty good.
• 1:51:01
  Glen Jacobson: And but uh but the craziest thing I ever saw out there was not at sea, it was at the fuel dock in Oak Bay, and Ketch was my deck hand, and we were fueling up.
• 1:51:18
  Glen Jacobson: I said, catch, catch, catch, come look at this, and this harbor seal, fat harbor seal, and his eyebrows were fat, he was so fat.
• 1:51:27
  Glen Jacobson: And he was diving down into this massive herring, and he'd grab a herring out of that school, and he'd come back up to the surface, and he'd get a foot from the surface, and he would oh he was feeding seagulls.
• 1:51:40
  Glen Jacobson: What?
• 1:51:40
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:51:42
  Glen Jacobson: This and but but he'd like spit out the herring and the seagull, yeah, go grab it.
• 1:51:47
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, all the seagulls were in on the game.
• 1:51:50
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, yeah, they were way in on the game.
• 1:51:52
  Glen Jacobson: And they uh and he he it was it was like he'd just have that clinched between his teeth, you know, and he he would just get about a foot from the surface, he'd just have his little momentum, and he'd just open his mouth and the seagulls would dive in on it.
• 1:52:05
  Glen Jacobson: And then and then he'd chuckle and slap his knee and go down and get another one.
• 1:52:09
  Glen Jacobson: But we were there for 40 minutes, and when we got there, that seal was feeding seagulls, and when we left 40 minutes later, he was still feeding, but that's what that's what entertained that seal that day was to feed seagulls.
• 1:52:24
  Glen Jacobson: I'd never seen it since or before, but I saw that one time.
• 1:52:28
  Glen Jacobson: And another thing I saw one time, and sometimes when whales and sea lions, they'll get in the mood where uh neither one's too busy or they're both content, and they'll just play around each other.
• 1:52:47
  Glen Jacobson: And uh we see it over here at Sea Lion Rock because the whales feed by there a lot, you know, and then and when a whale comes by, you know, see a lot of sea lions, they'll just jump in and swim along with that whale.
• 1:53:00
  Glen Jacobson: I was watching this whale boatload of passengers, and this whale, we were shut down, and the whale was right beside us, and the whale was not really doing anything other than just lolling up the surface, and he had sea lions all around him, and this cow sea lion swam up alongside by his eye but and went into the whale's mouth, and you know the whale's mouth was kind of open, but not really.
• 1:53:32
  Glen Jacobson: I mean, the the sea lion had to kind of wiggle its shoulders to get it in there, and then it swam out the far side of the mouth.
• 1:53:41
  Glen Jacobson: What?
• 1:53:42
  Glen Jacobson: And and there were people standing around me, and nobody else saw that happen but me.
• 1:53:48
  Glen Jacobson: And and I didn't even say anything because you know uh if you didn't see it, you're not gonna believe it.
• 1:53:56
  Glen Jacobson: You're not gonna believe it, yeah.
• 1:53:58
  Glen Jacobson: But it jarn sure happened.
• 1:54:00
  Glen Jacobson: And and and it looked to me like that sea lion, that wasn't the first time it done that.
• 1:54:06
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah.
• 1:54:07
  Glen Jacobson: But uh, but that had that that shocked me.
• 1:54:10
  Glen Jacobson: And passenger on the boat asked me some of the craziest things I've seen.
• 1:54:16
  Glen Jacobson: And those are the two craziest things I've ever seen out there.
• 1:54:20
  Glen Jacobson: And Captain George, he'd tell the story, and he'll tell the story better than me because he thought that uh that's a good story.
• 1:54:27
  Glen Jacobson: But he was just the other side of Elder Rock, and he was pretty far offshore because he was headed out towards Elder Rock, so he was a couple miles offshore, and they found a pot of orca whales out there, and it's a good place to find orca whales, and sometimes you see them.
• 1:54:43
  Glen Jacobson: And uh so he was getting a little closer, and she just shut down the boat, and the orca whales, there's six of them, and they all swam right to the boat, and then they were just hanging out there right at the boat.
• 1:54:55
  Glen Jacobson: And so, of course, George was enjoying it, and of course his passengers were loving it, and so he drops the hydrophone in because you want to get the full effect, and it was silent.
• 1:55:06
  Glen Jacobson: But those whales wouldn't leave, it was just silent, and they're just milling around the boat, and uh, and so finally, you know, you can't stay there all day, but they had a nice good long stop and pulls the hydrophone in and starts the motors, and and uh he puts them in gear and he starts to go, and all six of those whales are following the boat, and uh so he brings up the throttles, and now he's doing 12 knots, and all six of those whales are still following the boat, following the boat, and he brings it up to 16 knots, 18 knots, and about 19 knots, they are moving and they are starting to porpoise, but they're still right behind the boat, porpoising one after the other, porpoising, and he brings 22 knots, and they're still porpoising right behind the boat, but but but they they gotta they gotta keep clearing the water to get that speed up there, and they stayed right with the boat, and then all six of those whales are right in the prop wash, porpoising right behind the fjord land, and then all six of those whales veered and nailed a pod of doll's porpoises.
• 1:56:19
  Glen Jacobson: And so, you know, you're just freaking out while it's going on, but then after it happens, using it as camouflage, yeah.
• 1:56:27
  Glen Jacobson: They were using the the the boat for a blind, they were hiding it in the fjord land, and and they had they they they hung around until they got going and they could do that job.
• 1:56:40
  Glen Jacobson: Uh but I did not see that one, but ask George Falcon.
• 1:56:45
  Glen Jacobson: He's he's seen some things up there, I think I'd I George has worked for us more than 20 years now, I think.
• 1:56:52
  Douglas: Yeah.
• 1:56:52
  Glen Jacobson: So uh, but yeah, ask George about that one.
• 1:56:56
  Glen Jacobson: When uh there was tell you a scary story.
• 1:57:03
  Glen Jacobson: And sometimes you go swimming when you're the captain of the fjord land.
• 1:57:08
  Glen Jacobson: Sometimes you go swimming.
• 1:57:09
  Glen Jacobson: There's something in the prop, and you just have to go swim.
• 1:57:12
  Glen Jacobson: And little Vicky, get that little Victorinox saw blade edge.
• 1:57:19
  Glen Jacobson: You that's you don't want anything else after you use that, you're down there trying to hold your breath.
• 1:57:24
  Glen Jacobson: That's what you want.
• 1:57:24
  Glen Jacobson: That's the right tool for the job.
• 1:57:26
  Glen Jacobson: So there's you know that green poly braided line that floats.
• 1:57:30
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, I don't know, I got 80 or 130 feet of that in my starboard prop one day, and I was down there by Nab Island, and I had to go in the water.
• 1:57:39
  Glen Jacobson: And Allison was my deck hand.
• 1:57:41
  Glen Jacobson: So this was this was probably 2002, 2003.
• 1:57:47
  Glen Jacobson: And um we so I stopped the boat and uh I stripped down to my underwear and I jumped in the water with that little five-inch long Victorinox serrated knife, and I started sawing and uh kept sawing as big it was knotted in the hard, but then it finally it is really cutting through there, and it was and it kind of came all undone in one ball.
• 1:58:17
  Glen Jacobson: And when it came undone, the prop started spinning.
• 1:58:22
  Douglas: Uh-oh.
• 1:58:22
  Glen Jacobson: This is a 105-pound prop, and it was like it was kind of stuck in trolling gear, trolling mode's kind of halfway into gear where it was, but it's still a big prop.
• 1:58:32
  Glen Jacobson: And and it would and it blew me out of there, and I came to the surface, and uh and I said to Allison called me, I said, shut down that starboard engine, and she did, and uh, I went back in there and I finished cutting out the line and the prop.
• 1:58:52
  Glen Jacobson: But it's a good thing it wasn't stuck in reverse because it would have sucked me into it.
• 1:58:55
  Glen Jacobson: It sucked you right into it, yeah.
• 1:58:57
  Glen Jacobson: And uh, and so of course I would never ever go down there again with the engine running.
• 1:59:08
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah no, no, no, but uh, but I was fortunate to be able to learn that lesson was um so do you have do you have a set of swim swim goggles?
• 1:59:21
  Glen Jacobson: I got we have it, we have a mask and a snorkel and a knife and uh and and a wetsuit, but it takes a long to get into that thing.
• 1:59:32
  Glen Jacobson: Usually the jobs are a lot quicker than uh and well because that water's cold.
• 1:59:37
  Glen Jacobson: Well it is, you know, and when I was when I was younger it didn't bother me as much, but this summer me and Hannah, we had an issue.
• 1:59:45
  Glen Jacobson: We dropped uh a stern line into the prop.
• 1:59:49
  Glen Jacobson: And uh, you know, it happens, and so I needed to go swimming, and I threw a fit.
• 1:59:56
  Glen Jacobson: I just I just you know, when I was younger, it didn't bother me.
• 2:00:01
  Glen Jacobson: I'd just jump in because you don't want to think about it.
• 2:00:03
  Glen Jacobson: As a matter of fact, it it's a lot easier to go in the water on accident than on purpose, you know.
• 2:00:07
  Glen Jacobson: And uh, but uh I know how to jump in the water and how to do it, but I threw a fit because I didn't want to jump in the water.
• 2:00:13
  Glen Jacobson: And then uh so finally I I I I went to town and couldn't find the couldn't find I bought a child, went to Fredmeyer and bought a child's snorkel and mask and uh went back and I cut line out of the prop this year.
• 2:00:29
  Glen Jacobson: Um but uh now that I'm I'm an employee, uh I throw a little bit of a fit when I have to swim.
• 2:00:40
  Douglas: So I've had to do that once.
• 2:00:42
  Douglas: My senior year in high school, my dad had me take the beach comer down on a halibut opening, and Craig Loomis went with me.
• 2:00:50
  Douglas: And we're in the mouth of Glacier Bay, we'd set our gear.
• 2:00:53
  Douglas: I don't know if it I can't remember if it's our gear, uh, our buoy line.
• 2:00:56
  Douglas: I got it somebody's buoy line in the prop.
• 2:00:58
  Douglas: And so we're there, and I'm like, crap, I don't know, boat's off.
• 2:01:02
  Douglas: Craig don't swim.
• 2:01:03
  Douglas: Craig wasn't gonna go swimming, and I no wetsuit, no nothing, so uh tie a tie a line around me, got a knife.
• 2:01:13
  Douglas: I don't have a swim mask or anything.
• 2:01:15
  Douglas: I jump off the back of the beach comer, and when I hit that water, it was because this was I can't remember, I think it was beginning of May, end April, something like that.
• 2:01:24
  Douglas: It was cold.
• 2:01:25
  Douglas: All the all the air just exploded out of me because I tried to hold my breath and go down and was gonna do it real quick.
• 2:01:32
  Douglas: Nope, I came up.
• 2:01:33
  Douglas: I had like pull me out, pull me out, and so I was just at that time frozen, but you have to go back in, right?
• 2:01:39
  Douglas: So I jumped in again and I just I grabbed that line and I just I couldn't see anything, and so I'm just hacking away at the line and felt like it came free, so I think we're free, and uh got out of the water and we turned prop and prop went and everything.
• 2:01:54
  Douglas: So, all right, I think we're good.
• 2:01:56
  Douglas: But there's as I'm moving around, there's blood all over the deck.
• 2:02:00
  Douglas: There's all the stuff, what in the heck?
• 2:02:03
  Douglas: I sliced the crap out of my finger here.
• 2:02:06
  Douglas: I had no, I mean this flap of skin's coming off.
• 2:02:08
  Douglas: I had Craig's father's like, uh, your finger's bleeding because I hadn't yeah, I had no idea.
• 2:02:13
  Douglas: It's cold, I couldn't feel it.
• 2:02:14
  Glen Jacobson: No, and feel anything and your body's full of adrenaline, you're fight or flight because that water's that cold.
• 2:02:20
  Glen Jacobson: And yep, and it's not nearly as bad doing what I describe as what you describe because that w the water is not cold.
• 2:02:28
  Glen Jacobson: I know cold enough.
• 2:02:30
  Glen Jacobson: I've gone in water that takes your breath away.
• 2:02:32
  Glen Jacobson: And usually you it you end up here that's not is not as cold as at the mouth of Glacier Bay, apparently.
• 2:02:38
  Glen Jacobson: That was that was cold.
• 2:02:41
  Douglas: I've been jumping out and I'm you know going down in the harbor here for summers all the time, but yeah, that was uh I never wanted to do that again.
• 2:02:49
  Douglas: Once was enough.
• 2:02:52
  Glen Jacobson: What else you got on your notes here?
• 2:02:54
  Glen Jacobson: Well, let's see.
• 2:02:55
  Glen Jacobson: I think I've covered everything that I jotted down that uh let's look here while you're looking through that.
• 2:03:04
  Glen Jacobson: Oh, there's something else I want to say.
• 2:03:06
  Glen Jacobson: Sure.
• 2:03:07
  Glen Jacobson: But no, you go ahead.
• 2:03:08
  Glen Jacobson: I'm gonna while I'm looking at this.
• 2:03:12
  Douglas: What do you think 10-year-old crawfish Glenn would think of where boy in Kansas creating a boat tour in Alaska and just where you know operating tugboats and spending so much of your time on the on the ocean growing up in Kansas?
• 2:03:38
  Glen Jacobson: Well, that's gonna be a disappointing answer, but that 10-year-old crowded kid Glenn would have thought that's probably about where you'll be.
• 2:03:48
  Glen Jacobson: That's about where you'll be.
• 2:03:49
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:03:49
  Glen Jacobson: I I I uh I thought I thought that I would be on the water for a career.
• 2:03:57
  Glen Jacobson: You'd you'd play you'd that was an early you know you I don't give myself too much credit because I don't I didn't plan it uh uh that way, but uh uh but I think that somewhere in my head that I had a vision that I would be on the water.
• 2:04:12
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, I wanted to uh I was enchanted by the ocean.
• 2:04:17
  Glen Jacobson: And and I thought that I would I would get to there.
• 2:04:23
  Douglas: I think that's awesome that that turned out that way for you.
• 2:04:26
  Douglas: You've been able to share it with so many people.
• 2:04:30
  Glen Jacobson: Yeah, I have when I'm on, I have an enthusiasm for it that can be contagious uh when I'm on.
• 2:04:39
  Glen Jacobson: I'm not always on, but when I'm on on the boat.
• 2:04:43
  Glen Jacobson: Um so you're running for mayor.
• 2:04:48
  Glen Jacobson: Is that right?
• 2:04:50
  Douglas: By the time this airs, it'll be over.
• 2:04:53
  Douglas: But yes, I am running for mayor.
• 2:04:57
  Glen Jacobson: And I've got uh there's I want to talk a bit about the young people in this town and the things we've got going for us in this economy.
• 2:05:14
  Glen Jacobson: And one of the things that I'm excited about is this young fleet of fishermen that we got down here in the harbor is they this is a good generation of fishermen and they're cool.
• 2:05:31
  Douglas: Cool to see that young blood getting in there and being as successful as they are, isn't it?
• 2:05:35
  Glen Jacobson: And they're hard working too.
• 2:05:36
  Glen Jacobson: They're hard working, and these kids are sharp.
• 2:05:39
  Glen Jacobson: And there's the the and and they take care of each other.
• 2:05:44
  Douglas: Yep.
• 2:05:45
  Glen Jacobson: And I think that bodes well.
• 2:05:47
  Glen Jacobson: And it gets me thinking about this young energy, and energy is a very helpful and it's useful, and it gets you through long nights.
• 2:06:02
  Glen Jacobson: But the young people have the creativity that is important in starting a business.
• 2:06:12
  Glen Jacobson: And so we've got we've got those bright kids that are out there fishing and working hard, and some of them are gonna think of things that we haven't thought of because you it comes to you when you're out there doing it.
• 2:06:30
  Glen Jacobson: And we've got we've got youth here that will start a business, and like my experience, they'll do plan A, it won't work.
• 2:06:44
  Glen Jacobson: They'll do plan B and it won't work, but plan C works.
• 2:06:51
  Glen Jacobson: And when that they have the energy and the creativity to figure out plan C and what does work, and it's if they offer if they're honest in business and they offer a good value for the service or product, they will succeed, and it might take them the same three years as I did, but they will succeed.
• 2:07:13
  Glen Jacobson: And I'm a little what I want to talk to you about as a candidate for mayor, is I don't know, our tour permit process is whatever you think of it, you have to agree that it hinders that creativity that these that the young people you a business most likely it's gonna fail, but the ones that succeed most likely are not doing what they planned to do.
• 2:07:57
  Glen Jacobson: And when you take your hat off and you walk before the city fathers at the city council and ask for their good graces and grant you a tour permit, well, you know, you're probably not gonna succeed, but you might succeed at something else, and you you go do that process again.
• 2:08:14
  Glen Jacobson: And uh the I'm not saying the tour permit process is not important, but I am saying that it is it squelches business that would otherwise exist.
• 2:08:29
  Glen Jacobson: And we don't even know what those businesses are because a young person is intimidated to go that route of standing before the city.
• 2:08:39
  Douglas: I don't think it's just young people.
• 2:08:40
  Douglas: I think people of a lot of ages are intimidated to go in front of there and do that, and to have people nitpick it, and you know, you you you've got this young idea this that you think is amazing, and to have people go in there and be very judgmental about the impact you're gonna have.
• 2:08:58
  Douglas: And it's I I agree, it's there's a lot of things in the tourism regulations that were the result of one individual.
• 2:09:07
  Glen Jacobson: And we look at Bart Henderson and what he accomplished, and uh there's there's a number of people here.
• 2:09:16
  Douglas: Bart, Duck, Bill Finley, Bill Finley, you know, the um uh Haines Bruin, Paul.
• 2:09:23
  Douglas: Well, Paul Wheeler, you know, successful businessman, Heather and Sean with the distillery, you know, the the the woman that's doing Woolhaven Wolves.
• 2:09:32
  Douglas: These people we we have a ton of entrepreneurs, you and Alison the same way, listening to you tell your story and how you had uh Frank Wallace was in your corner, Dick Flegel was in your corner, Frank Haas was in your corner.
• 2:09:46
  Douglas: That how do how can we identify the entrepreneurs that have these ideas and give them the support to get them through those first three years that you had that there's we're not fighting four or five other things besides just the no normal business environment.
• 2:10:03
  Douglas: How do we make this that we can encourage them to take that step, support them along those steps so they have a chance to be successful?
• 2:10:11
  Glen Jacobson: One one one way you you could support them is during a meeting like that with when one of these people are looking for permission that you that at some point in the meeting say to them that sounds to me like a good idea, but if it doesn't work, uh be sure and uh and try again, try again, be sure and keep going.
• 2:10:39
  Glen Jacobson: Uh most most business ideas fail, but if you keep going, you'll hit on one.
• 2:10:45
  Glen Jacobson: Um but uh yeah, be have Frank Wallace is be a good inspiration for us all.
• 2:10:55
  Douglas: Absolutely, yeah.
• 2:10:57
  Douglas: But no, just and that's that's the thing talking to Duck, talking to Bart.
• 2:11:00
  Douglas: They were talking about people that supported them along, people off the cruise ships and stuff like that, that were like, hey, we think this is a good idea, and kind of helping them along the that that process.
• 2:11:11
  Douglas: We need to do more of that.
• 2:11:13
  Douglas: We we do as a as a society and as a community, we do really well on tearing other people down and figuring out a way to find the deficiencies in the plan.
• 2:11:23
  Douglas: Like we need to do a better job of uplifting people and encourage them in their and their dreams and their plans.
• 2:11:30
  Glen Jacobson: Before we sign off here, and and I think I'm about ready to crack a beer, all right, but I want to mention two other businessmen that it occurs to me right now, but Tim Hannon has kept that fishing fleet running for a generation and a half now.
• 2:11:50
  Glen Jacobson: Uh huh.
• 2:11:51
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and Carry Town at Canal Marine has been, I can call Kerry.
• 2:11:59
  Glen Jacobson: And he sees it's my number.
• 2:12:01
  Glen Jacobson: I'll call him at 10 o'clock on Saturday night and he knows who it is.
• 2:12:04
  Glen Jacobson: He knows what's coming.
• 2:12:05
  Glen Jacobson: And he says, hello, Glenn.
• 2:12:07
  Glen Jacobson: And you know how valuable that is, but that is uh that's a good Carrie makes money.
• 2:12:15
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and I make money because Carrie's making money, and I couldn't do it without him.
• 2:12:20
  Glen Jacobson: And uh and he wins, I wins, and and and I wanted to give my customer their money's worth as well.
• 2:12:27
  Glen Jacobson: So it's not a zero-sum game.
• 2:12:30
  Glen Jacobson: It is in business that you you it's not winners.
• 2:12:36
  Glen Jacobson: You don't want to need to win the deal.
• 2:12:38
  Glen Jacobson: You need to make a deal where both parties win.
• 2:12:42
  Glen Jacobson: And uh there is win.
• 2:12:49
  Glen Jacobson: I was a freshman, I was an economics student at Kansas State University, and the professor was expounding, and he told us, he said, in Kansas, we can grow all the oranges we want.
• 2:13:04
  Glen Jacobson: We do not need Florida oranges, we can grow all our oranges right here.
• 2:13:10
  Glen Jacobson: Not only that, we can grow all the wheat we need.
• 2:13:13
  Glen Jacobson: And he said, but if we don't grow oranges and we grow more wheat, we can trade for all the oranges we want, and we can also trade for Chevrolet from Detroit.
• 2:13:29
  Glen Jacobson: So there's win, win, win.
• 2:13:31
  Glen Jacobson: Uh business works, and uh and most business deals, everybody wins in them, and you don't need to look at a deal like you need to win the deal, like the other party needs to lose the deal.
• 2:13:47
  Glen Jacobson: That's not the way business works, and businessmen and business people have gotten a bad rap lately because Washington says we need to win this deal, and that's not the way business works, and every businessman, you know it, so Chip Lindy knows it, uh, that you don't you don't need to win the deal, that everybody needs to win.
• 2:14:11
  Douglas: Everybody needs to win.
• 2:14:12
  Glen Jacobson: And then and then it's a and then it's a good deal when everybody wins.
• 2:14:16
  Douglas: Agreed.
• 2:14:17
  Douglas: Thank you, Glenn.
• 2:14:21
  Glen Jacobson: All right.
• 2:14:21
  Glen Jacobson: Well, Doug, it was good to talk to you.
• 2:14:23
  Douglas: It's always great to talk to you.
• 2:14:25
  Douglas: I appreciate it you allowing us to record this and share this with everybody else.
• 2:14:29
  Douglas: I've when I moved home in '94 and you guys a few years into your business, I was like, what the what the heck is this?
• 2:14:37
  Douglas: And just seeing it grow over the years and uh and to what you were able to make that become, the work with you and Allison and your family.
• 2:14:45
  Douglas: It's been very impressive, and I've always admired the way that you guys handle yourself, the way you handle your business, take care of your customers.
• 2:14:53
  Douglas: Um I I think a lot of tour operators could learn something from you and your business and catch a I know is carrying on the family tradition, and I think you and Allison should be proud of not only him, but Anna Libby as well.
• 2:15:09
  Glen Jacobson: Doug, that's a nice sentiment.
• 2:15:11
  Douglas: I appreciate you verbalizing that.
• 2:15:12
  Douglas: We appreciate having your family and Haines.
• 2:15:15
  Douglas: I'm glad you decided, I'm glad you came over the past and figured this is the place you wanted to spend your time because Haines is better off with people like you here.
• 2:15:23
  Douglas: Awesome.
• 2:15:23
  Douglas: All right, good night, Doug.
• 2:15:25
  Douglas: Thanks, Glenn.
• 2:15:26
  Douglas: Thanks for watching this episode of Doug Has Questions.
• 2:15:30
  Douglas: I hope this episode has provided some better understanding, some inspiration, some connection for you.
• 2:15:35
  Douglas: If it has, or if you have any comments, reach out to us on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.
• 2:15:40
  Douglas: Thanks again for watching.