Latest / Share Your Fire / Share Your Fire, Ep. 12 - You Can't Force the Cut (Chip Scholz)
Transcript
- John Verrico: Hey there. Welcome to Share Your Fire. I'm John Verico. I have an incredible guest today. Very, very dynamic. You're gonna like this guy. ⁓ his name is Chip Scholes, and he is ⁓ a speaker, an author. He helps people get better at what they do, no matter what it is that they do. Very, very interesting life. I think you're gonna find ⁓ a lot to to to be intrigued about. Probably one of the most interesting things is that he's a wood turner and ⁓ he does a lot of work with with wood and that is his art and he also teaches that as well as doing this business stuff and primarily helping ⁓ family businesses ⁓ in transition. So lots of interesting stuff to talk about. I can't wait to get into this conversation. So let's just stop pussyfooting around and bring in Chip Scholz. Chip, I'm doing great. How are you doing today? Chip Scholz: Hey John, how are you? You know, I am doing fantastic and I'm so glad to be on. You know, I I really like the premise of your show. It's just ⁓ it's it's a breath of fresh air. John Verrico: Well, thank you. That's what I think. ⁓ you know, I think that we just need more positivity in our in our lives. You know, the world is in such a negative place right now, and ⁓ especially important for us to realize that not only are there good things happening around the world, but there are good people out there helping others, reaching out, ⁓ and and the the unsung, you know, stories, the unknown stories. And that's what I want to showcase for people is to realize that. You know, there are good folks out there who care and have a heart and ⁓ and just live to help others. Chip Scholz: Well, you know, and it's it's really interesting. So there are six hundred and seventy-two words for emotion in the English language. Seventy percent of them are negative. So we're starting at a deficit, you know. We're we're starting at I listen, do we do we watch the news because we want to hear all these really wonderful things about people doing good things? Or do we watch the news to find out, you know, that that the dog well, the dog bit the man, that's no big deal, but the man bites the dog, right? John Verrico: Wow. Yeah, looking for that unusual stuff. Chip Scholz: You know, so so yeah, I I stopped I stopped watching the news ages ago. I d I don't pay attention to that stuff. You know, somebody mentioned something that's ⁓ going on in the news, maybe I'll find out about it, but ⁓ no, I just I don't need that. I don't need that negativity. John Verrico: I I agree with you. And you know, you're talking to somebody who worked in the news industry for 40-some odd years. And at the same time I did, absolutely. But you know, my whole goal was to push out ⁓ these types of stories, actually. Stories about ⁓ people that were doing good stuff, mostly recognizing the people who were doing good things and not getting credit for it. ⁓ so Chip Scholz: And survived. Yeah. Well, you know, the the the other thing that I've noticed is is that you've got about 10% of the population, five percent at one end and five percent at the other, and they're the wing nuts. And then you've got you've got 90% of the population that is just normal and just wants to go to work and do their job and and you know and and take care of their families and you know, just go about their lives and you know, so all we hear about are the wingnuts. ⁓ so so John Verrico: Yes. Yes, well of course. Chip Scholz: So why do why do we want to do that, right? John Verrico: Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah, I I watch the news for the local weather and for ⁓ you know those kinds of ⁓ some of the local stories. The stuff on the national level, it's gonna happen. and you know, during during COVID especially was a time when I think I just said, you know, I just can't keep watching the news. I just can't keep watching this over and over. Chip Scholz: Yeah. Yeah. John Verrico: And every time we go into ⁓ you know, some other latest atrocity ⁓ that is going on in the world or in the country, that's all we hear about over and over again. So yeah, I pretty much have tuned out on the news myself, which is ⁓ which is something sad to say for somebody who worked in it for so long. Chip Scholz: You know, my my epiphany came in about two thousand seven when you know when the economy was going to hell and the world was going to hell and ⁓ and I just said tap out, I'm gone, see ya. And and you know, listen, listen, I can get the weather on an app John Verrico: So So true, so true. Although we get a kick out of I I have to admit, sometimes we riff on the news. We riff on our local the the anchors and stuff. And ⁓ it it's interesting too. I've also noticed over the years that ⁓ there's seems to be less and less ⁓ stress on proper pronunciation of words. ⁓ Chip Scholz: I hear that. John Verrico: You can tell that people don't pre read their scripts before they start, you know, the anchoring. It's ⁓ quite quite different from back in the day when ⁓ you know, you had to make sure that every word was perfect. Chip Scholz: That's right. That's right. Yeah. John Verrico: But anyway, let's let's move on from that and the heck with the news and let's talk about ⁓ you know the real world real world situations and and what you're doing ⁓ to help people. Chip Scholz: Well thanks. Thanks. What would you like me to tell you? John Verrico: Ha ha well, you know, one of the things that that when we were chatting ⁓ before we started the show, you said that you help people get better at what they do. I know that you're a speaker. I know you that you're an author. You've been focusing on helping ⁓ primarily family businesses ⁓ in transition because that's that's a very unique ⁓ niche. And I'd like to talk a little bit about that because there are so many people who they'll start a family business and And they think that their kids are gonna take it over or whatever. ⁓ but that doesn't necessarily happen. Or maybe they don't have kids, or maybe, you know, ⁓ something is is transpired. So the business is at a point where, you know, the owner is is wants to retire out or something's happened. What happens at this point? Chip Scholz: Yeah. ⁓ and and I've seen some really good situations. I've seen some really bad situations over the years. the the way I got involved in in family business, ⁓ and it's it's kind of an interesting story because because before that, ⁓ all I worked for was big companies. You know, they were all publicly held companies and they were all driven by the same thing. So they were they were all big companies that I worked for. Yeah, exactly. John Verrico: Money. Chip Scholz: And even though I work for a ⁓ one small subsidiary of a larger company, it was still there's still the big company stuff. ⁓ I got into my own business and ⁓ I was I was giving a speech to a rotary club here in Charlotte when this guy comes up to me and he said, ⁓ I'm with the Southeastern Warehouse Association. ⁓ we'd love to have you come and speak at our ⁓ at our group this fall. I got a chance to talk to sixty or seventy business owners from around the southeast who are running pretty good enterprises. I mean, these were companies that were from probably from about twenty to a hundred million dollars worth of worth of business, which are pretty substantial businesses. And they were all family businesses, and they might have been second or third or even fourth generation. I've I've got one company that I know of that the fifth generation is is working in it now. ⁓ John Verrico: Yeah. Chip Scholz: And and that was my first introduction to family businesses and and long-term family businesses, and not just the mom and pop or the insurance agent or the printing store down the road, but these are these are enterprises that ⁓ that were doing some great things in in family business. And what I found in that was a passion for what they do, a different kind of a culture. Different kind of a culture that that treated people as people rather than as objects, ⁓ that that worried more about how people were treated than ⁓ than performance, although performance was ⁓ was important. but you know, ⁓ I I wrote a book called Handoffs, it's coming out in ⁓ you know probably prior to ⁓ to this airing. And ⁓ the reason I wrote it is because It's a conglomeration of all the family stories that I've heard over the last, ⁓ God, the last 30 years. ⁓ and and it's it's interesting. ⁓ I I sent it to a bunch of people to endorse the book. They all came back with the same thing and they said, they said, Did you write that about our family? John Verrico: Ha ha ha. Chip Scholz: Because it is pretty universal. So what happens is somebody gets older and they don't know how to hand it off. ⁓ they don't trust their kids to run the business, even though their kids might be in their 40s or 50s, you know, and now they're getting into their 70s or 80s. They start to get scary about investing in the business. So they're more they're more about conserving their wealth rather than passing it on to the next generation or You know, they they want to make sure they can play golf into their eighties and and ⁓ and that kind of thing. And they don't want they don't want somebody to come in and and you know, shake their house. So the business tends to have a more difficult time expanding and you know, and there you go. John Verrico: And so many times I think what happens is ⁓ you know when when the business gets to a a certain point and and and now okay it's time for the the current owner to to step down and there's not maybe potentially not a family to turn it over to, or there is this opportunity ⁓ to finally transition out and sell the business. Finally, you know, just just step back and sell it. What happens is people wait until they're too tired. So they start slowing down, they start cutting back, and they're not doing as much. And what happens is when you're looking at the you know the the profit margins and all that, when companies were looking to to buy them out, those profits have gone down because maybe they've slowed down a little bit. And when they see that downward trend, maybe this maybe the business doesn't sell as high as it could for that transition as well. And so I've heard. that people should, you know, if they're thinking about doing a transition and they're thinking about selling their business, they should do it while they're at their peak because then the business will drink more. But it's interesting, dynamic. Chip Scholz: Well, you know, why why did why did Brett Favre wait so long to retire? Did he want to retire at the top or did he want to retire on the way out? ⁓ you know, Brady, you know, same kind of thing. ⁓ although he still went out pretty much on top. But you know, why do people wait too long to make any transition? Because it's hard to believe that There is gonna come a day when you're not as sharp as you were or or not doing the thing that you were. And you know, nobody likes to believe that. I don't like to believe that, John. Do you like to believe that? John Verrico: ⁓ heck no. I I I plan on being ⁓ sharp and annoying right to the last moment. But I don't know. Chip Scholz: Yeah, so s so which would you rather be? Sharp or annoying? John Verrico: ⁓ well both actually. Chip Scholz: Okay, okay. But if you but if you can only choose one. John Verrico: ⁓ don't make me go there. I already told my wife, you know, I want to be buried at sea, so when the time comes we'll go on a cruise and she can just roll me off the balcony. She'll have had enough t enough of me. Chip Scholz: Well and and that way that way when you go to the bottom of the ocean they they can say down deep you're a really nice guy. John Verrico: I love it. I'm gonna use that chip. I'm just saying. Chip Scholz: I ⁓ John, please, you know, R and D stands for rip off and duplicate. John Verrico: Yeah, absolutely. And I worked in that field as well. So yeah. ⁓ I love it. So Chip, tell me, how do you how do you help folks? Chip Scholz: a number of ways. So, you know, one of the things that that we talked about is being a crafts person. I I do wood turning. ⁓ if you're on video, you can see all the the different things, a lot of things that I've made ⁓ on the ⁓ on the shelves behind me. I I teach wood turning. ⁓ I I just really love to see someone who's never touched a lathe or never touched a a tool. be able to make something by the time they leave the ⁓ the class at the end of the day. ⁓ it it it just is really cool to to watch something somebody learn something I love. I I'm also the the president of the North Carolina Woodturners Association, which ⁓ you know, I'm having a ball with that. It's it's not that, you know, it's not that big deal. It sounds like a whole lot more ⁓ impressive than it is. ⁓ but it's just a it's just a group of people that get together and ⁓ and talk about wood turning. And ⁓ and we just have a really great time with it. ⁓ I also ⁓ go ahead. Yeah. John Verrico: Let me ask you, let me I'm I'm gonna interrupt you for a second because I want to tr I want to understand and help people to understand and this will give us an insight into the real Chip Scholz, ⁓ what is it about wood turning that intrigues you so much? Chip Scholz: Okay. Well, it saved my life. You know, ⁓ and and that may be a big statement, but ⁓ I had a stroke in twenty twelve. ⁓ and coming back from the stroke, you know, it took a lot of therapy, it took a lot of ⁓ of of took a lot of work. ⁓ but my wife bought me a lathe for ⁓ for Christmas ⁓ the year after the stroke. I just fell in love. What it did for me is it changed my cognition. What it did for me, it started opening up new neural pathways from perhaps the movement of ⁓ of the body, ⁓ perhaps the ⁓ you know the thinking things through, but it just started opening up all kinds of neural pathways. You could almost feel the neural pathways rerouting around the the damaged sections of the brain. so I I really I credit ⁓ the ⁓ you know, and i I I credit a lot of stuff, but ⁓ I really credit the lathe with ⁓ with saving my life. Saving my life as I know it. And fourteen years later I'm still here and have got a couple books out and, you know, ⁓ I'm having a ball. John Verrico: I have to I have to say that a lathe was kind of a pretty unique gift. Had you had had you done woodworking prior to that? That it was an interest? Okay. Chip Scholz: Yeah. Yeah, I'd I'd done woodworking, but I'd done flat work. So, you know, they they talk about flat work versus round work. Flat work is is making furniture and that kind of thing. So I've I've made furniture and I I enjoy woodworking. ⁓ but the last time I had churned on a lathe was junior high. And and that's yeah, and and that's the typical story of people that get into wood turning is the last time I touched it was in high school or junior high. John Verrico: Yeah. But the last time I touched one. Chip Scholz: ⁓ yeah, and by the the way the average age of a wood turner is sixty seven years old. So I fit the demographic, you know, but anyway. John Verrico: Wow. That's that that's amazing. So so now you have ⁓ this this outlet ⁓ and this ⁓ this ⁓ opportunity to create something new out of a piece of wood. Chip Scholz: Yeah. John Verrico: And so this ⁓ this creativity, this opportunity for you ⁓ to make things, you're sharing that with other folks, you're sharing this love. And so what is I I guess, you know, what is the inspiration as you see things c take shape ⁓ on the lathe? Chip Scholz: Well, let me go back and say that ⁓ the lathe also became an outlet for being useful. So ⁓ my mother-in-law was an amazing woman. She really was. She ⁓ passed away ⁓ in 2017, the day after Christmas. She was ⁓ twelve days shy of her ninety-eighth birthday. ⁓ she died she died in my easy chair in my wife's arms. Yeah. ⁓ and she was a craftsperson. She she did ⁓ these things called theorem paintings. She did oils at one time, she did watercolors, she did these these magnificent metal trays that were ⁓ like a back black background with ⁓ with gold leaf and and silver on them. I j just incredible stuff. And she just to the end she was a a craftsperson. ⁓ till about six months before she passed. But ⁓ she always wanted me to be useful. You know, she always wanted me to find things that that made me useful. And and you know, yeah, it sounds funny, but ⁓ John Verrico: I I love the way you say that, you know. I just wanna find a way I want you to be useful. What a great idea. Chip Scholz: Well, it's it's different. It's different from being performative. So, you know, and and it's also difference from being important. So it's it's a difference from being important to being useful. It's a difference from being performative to being useful. And and the stroke gave me the outlet. So, you know, she was ⁓ she was around probably three or four years after the stroke and saw me start to wood turn and and that kind of stuff. John Verrico: Right. Ooh, good deep. Chip Scholz: ⁓ and watch the transition as I went through from somebody who had to be on all the time, had to be important, to someone that didn't really have to be important, but wanted to be useful. And and that was the big transition. So, you know, when when I put something on the lathe, ⁓ yes, I'm thinking about what it's going to become. I have a ⁓ good idea of what it's going to become. ⁓ like I know when I'm putting on blanks that. ⁓ that are gonna end up being ornaments or or whatever. ⁓ but you don't really know what the what the final form will be. You don't know what you know what it'll look like. You don't know when when you ⁓ start to ⁓ turn a piece of wood you don't know what what the grain is gonna look like and ⁓ and you know the the lathe taught me so much it's it's taught me so much about patience You know, you you just you can't force the cut. You can't I I was ⁓ like ⁓ I I heard this somewhere, ⁓ you can't make people love you, you know, and you can't force the cut, which means that that if I if I force it, if I push too hard, things are gonna break and and things are gonna things are gonna not gonna turn out well. Whereas if I just let things happen the way they're supposed to happen, ⁓ you know, that's It it comes out right. one of my favorite sayings is is ⁓ Semper Gumby. ⁓ and ⁓ you see you see Gumby sitting back here and and Gumby is ⁓ is this little claymation character and Semper stands for always and Gumby stands for ⁓ flexibility. So always flexible. John Verrico: Yes. Yes. Chip Scholz: You know, because things aren't always gonna turn out the way you expect them to. And maybe you you know, maybe that's okay. Right. John Verrico: Well, you know, two things can happen, right? As you get as you get deeper into the wood, you find you know, new grains, new colors, new striations, yes, imperfections, and also maybe some new wonders that you didn't even realize were there. It gives you the opportunity to pull those things out. When you go in with an open mind, ⁓ and you let Chip Scholz: Imperfections. John Verrico: You let the wood tell you what it's trying to show you. Chip Scholz: Yeah. Absolutely. John Verrico: Yeah, and I've heard that from artisans in a in a multi in multiple fields, you know, like they the clay tells me what to do, the stone tells me what to do for sculptors and ⁓ and and authors, the same thing, you know, as I as they start writing, the story starts to tell itself. Chip Scholz: Yep. Yep. Well, it's it's not so much that it that that the wood tells me what to do. It's it's more of the wood and I are partners in that. You know? Yeah, yeah, 'cause I you know, it's it's not that that some unnatural force is is guiding my every action, you know. Yeah, yeah. John Verrico: ⁓ I wasn't I wasn't trying to get woo woo with it, chip. I was But I was talking about, you know, like you may modify the way you're you're you're ⁓ you're turning something because you're seeing some new ⁓ new features in the wood that you want to bring out. Chip Scholz: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and you know, it it depends on on what the underlying structure of the wood is. You know, some woods are really boring, like straight grain maple is is pretty boring. So what do you do? You embellish it, you know, you add color, you add texture, you add add those kind of things. So that that opens the creativity quite a bit. ⁓ if you ⁓ if you ever go to woodturner.org, which is the ⁓ American Association of Woodturning website, ⁓ they have ⁓ gallery pieces that ⁓ that you can go on and take a look at. And you would be amazed, you would be shocked at some of the things that qualify for for turned pieces, because they don't resemble anything that's made out of wood. ⁓ And it and and I'm not talking about just, you know, regular utilitarian items. I'm talking about really artistic items too. So John Verrico: So you so you are now you're bringing your passion for for wood turning ⁓ and and all of the all that it means to you. You are sharing that you're sharing your fire to be for a you know, little little cheap plug there. ⁓ but you're sharing your fire with others and bringing this ⁓ this skill to others and ⁓ you're doing this down around where you live, but also, you know, kind of on a larger level as well. Chip Scholz: Yeah. That's Yep. Yep. Well, and it's been fun too, because ⁓ one of the things that with ⁓ the wood turning club, so there are a number of other wood turning clubs in in the state of North Carolina. And ⁓ when I got into it, ⁓ so the way I became president is I'd been a member of the club for about seven months. We're sitting at the Christmas party and ⁓ and one of the people stood up and said, you know, we just lost our third president. Does anybody want to be president? John Verrico: Yeah. Chip Scholz: And I raised my hand. So that was four years ago. And I'm still, I'm still president. So I didn't I didn't know what I was doing at all. And ⁓ and so the important thing is I really wanted to find out what other clubs were doing and you know, just rip off and duplicate things that were working for them. And ⁓ and so what I did is I put together ⁓ a group ⁓ John Verrico: Yeah. Chip Scholz: kind of a support group, kind of a mastermind group of all of the presidents of the clubs in North Carolina. We meet ⁓ once a quarter, we meet on Zoom once a quarter. And ⁓ and you know, we commiserate and talk about, hey, how do we get up members or what's we you know, what do we deal with insurance or, you know, how do you find demonstrators or, you know, how do you run your meetings? It's it's a great support group for ⁓ for the ⁓ the whole ⁓ the whole presidents and and you know, I've I've made some good friends out of it. John Verrico: You know what I like about that even more so is so much in life ⁓ tends to be competitive. When you look at ⁓ businesses, when you look at various types of organizations, they're all struggling for membership and and competing for membership, ⁓ competing for sales, competing for customers, competing for reputation. But here you guys are coming together and actually sharing information and helping each other's club. That's not something that happens in a lot of different industries. Chip Scholz: You know, none of us are ⁓ are are making huge dollar amounts from ⁓ any of this. you know, I I think the ⁓ the best way to make a million dollars turning wood is to start with two million. John Verrico: Well, it's not and it's not about but it's not it wasn't business focused. You know, you don't do that. You don't do a lot of the things that we we do to make money. You know, you don't write a book to make money either. You write a book because you have information to put out there and you want to help people. Chip Scholz: No, no, it's not. What? What? You don't you don't write a book for money? What? My publisher lied to me. John Verrico: You know how many times have I invested in something like that and and said, ⁓ yeah, people are gonna come knocking on my door because ⁓ because no, it's not true. You you get involved in projects like that because you want to make a difference someplace, ⁓ and because you're passionate about it. And that's the that's the that's the only real things that matter in this world. Chip Scholz: That's right. That's right. John, I I wanted to start off. I I when I first got in my business, I started off wanting to be a platform speaker, you know, a motivational speaker. And one thing I learned about ⁓ speaking for a living is first of all, it's a racket. And second of all, it's ⁓ it's very lonely. So, you know, it's it's kind of like being a comedian or being a performer of any kind. you go up on stage and you give it your all and and you you know, give a keynote for an hour or two hours and then you walk off stage and people slap your back and say, Hey, it was great. And then you walk back into your hotel room and watch bad TV and eat room service until you wait for your plane. And that and that's that's about it. And nobody there's no relationship there. So, you know, a a lot of speakers and a lot of actors and actresses are they're they're introverts. Because because that suits them just fine. Well, I'm not. I'm I'm much more of an extrovert. And so I've got to be around people and you know, and I've gotta I've gotta you know, I've gotta know, you know, I've gotta be I I've gotta be in relationship. And so that's why I got into coaching is because I wanted to create the relationship. That's why I've gotten into, you know, the the other things is ⁓ with wood turning wood turning associations is is I've got to create the relationships. John Verrico: Everything is about relationships. It truly is. That's how we survive. And I I I'm exactly the same way. I I'm an extrovert and when I'm doing a speaking event, I usually try to get there ahead of time so I can mingle with folks, ⁓ learn about them, you know, maybe I can call them out from the stage and things like that. And I usually will try to stick around afterward. Chip Scholz: Mm-hmm. John Verrico: ⁓ for as much interaction as possible just because I thrive on those those people interactions. I don't I never understood the people who flew in, did their speech, and flew out. It was like, okay, now I gotta go catch my plane. Like you're not building a relationship. We don't do business with businesses. We do business with people. Everything we do relies on relationship, person to person, human to human. And I think what you were doing, both in ⁓ working with family businesses, being a speaker. ⁓ Chip Scholz: Yes, we do. Yes, we do. John Verrico: ⁓ with the books that you've been putting out and we're gonna talk very, very briefly about those because we are running out of time. ⁓ and with the stuff you're doing ⁓ with wood turning as as a teacher and with the clubs, I mean, these are all relationship building types of things. And I think that is so needed in the world today. I want to hit briefly on those couple of books that you have have have out. Now handoffs should be coming out what time frame? Are we looking at? Chip Scholz: October. It's first first part of October. So yeah. John Verrico: October twenty twenty six. Well, maybe maybe this episode will post ⁓ in time for that and we'll see what I can do about ⁓ about trying to make that happen within this season. ⁓ as you know, like I said, I've got a bunch of them ⁓ kind of hanging to ready to be posted, but I I want to try to help get it out at least shortly afterward, if not, so so that people can find your book. And the book is called Handoffs. Okay, by Chip Schultz. Chip Scholz: Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yes. John Verrico: And also ⁓ you have some prior books out as well. Chip Scholz: Yeah. Every dog has his day came out in March of this year. And ⁓ small decisions, big shifts came out in ⁓ in last year. So the difference with handoffs is ⁓ it's the first time I've written fiction, ⁓ which was which was a real treat and learning how to write dialogue and and that kind of thing. It was ⁓ you know, it was it was a process, let me tell you. ⁓ but it was yeah, yeah. So it's it's a it's about a it's about a a fictional family. John Verrico: I didn't know it was a fiction book. Huh? Chip Scholz: that is in the logistics business, which I've I've spent a lot of time in the logistics business. And ⁓ it's it's about the eighty-two year old scion of the ⁓ of the business that refuses to cede control to his his son, who is fifty-four years old and and desperately wants to ⁓ to take over the business and gets thwarted at every turn by his ⁓ you know by his his old man. ⁓ and they go through a crisis or a couple of crises and and ⁓ so I use the the ⁓ framework that I had in small decisions, big shifts. I use that as the framework in ⁓ in handoffs. But ⁓ it's it's been great. It really I I really love the book and ⁓ I I hope everybody else does as well. John Verrico: I am looking forward to reading it. I I did not realize that this was going to be a fiction book, so I'm even more excited about seeing it. I was interested in it just be just the topic in the first place because of small decisions ⁓ you know, that you'd done before. So very excited. Chip Scholz: Yeah. So so so the so the next one is called Dancing in the Eye, which is based on a Brandy Carlisle song called The Eye, which is called ⁓ the the refrain is you can dance in a hurricane, but only if you're standing in the eye. Yeah, and it's it's a it's a ⁓ it's about a a a real lighthouse in Maine, but ⁓ the keepers of the lighthouse and the families that that John Verrico: Mm-hmm. Sandy in the eye. Chip Scholz: ⁓ inhabit the keeper's house, that's the whole thing. And it's it's the the whole thing is based on a theme of listen, how do how do we live faithful? How how do we live faithfully in the situations that we don't write? When when we don't get to write the outcomes, how do we live faithfully in them? And and so, you know, I'm having a ball writing that one. That's, you know, that's kind of historical fiction. Kind of. So John Verrico: That is that is fine. You know, it sounds like ⁓ you are just a very creative person and you're looking to share that creativity with the world. And I'm so glad that people like you are out there, Chip. Chip Scholz: Yeah. John, it's been a pleasure. It really has been. John Verrico: I I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed it. So if people want to get in touch with you, it's ⁓ shoals and associates.com. Chip Scholz: Yes. Yes, sir. John Verrico: And ⁓ and your books, every dog has its day and small decisions, big shifts are available on Amazon. Handoffs should be available in ⁓ October of twenty twenty six. So if you're listening to this after that, it's probably already available. And then ⁓ looking forward to ⁓ the more stuff coming down ⁓ in the future. Chip Scholz: Perfect. John, thank you so much. John Verrico: Chip, thank you. Thanks for your time and ⁓ and for sharing of yourself and for sharing your fire with the world. Greatly appreciate it.