Latest / The On Purpose Podcast / Ep. 371 – Amy Burkert: From the Open Road to Finding Home
Transcript
- speaker-0: You are listening to the On Purpose Podcast. What's up, everybody? Welcome to this week's edition of the show where you know it's our job to get you thinking, get you moving, maybe get you questioning a little bit, get you wondering, man, am I doing what I want to be doing? Am I doing enough? Am I pushing my envelope forward? And this week I'm super excited to bring on a guest that I actually met reversed for most of my guests, and then I met her in person first and now she's coming on the show. I'm talking about Amy Burkert, the mayor-elect of Bisbee, Arizona. Amy and her husband spent part of their lives traveling and living on the road before it eventually led them to Bisbee, where they've settled and become become active in local efforts. And her steady involvement in this has led her to step forward and recently be elected as mayor of the town. That Andrea and I are also excited to be able to start calling home here in just a few weeks. So Amy, my friend, welcome to the show. speaker-1: Thank you so much for having me, Jared. speaker-0: Amy, I want to thank you first off for having the courage and the curiosity to put yourself in a position like that, to step out and to recognize you have skills and abilities to lead not only your family and your successful businesses, but to lead the community around you to improve it. And I want to thank you for being courageous enough to step forward and do that. speaker-1: Thank well, thank you. It's it's an honor truly to be able to do this for this place that I have fallen so deeply in love with. So I'm grateful to be in this position. speaker-0: Yeah. I'm excited to explore Bisbee because I was I I can't wait to share what what what drew us to Bisbee and hear about yours. But first, take us all the way back to travel life Amy. What was that like? speaker-1: Well, that was so much fun, first of all. We had an absolute blast. Rod and I found a stray German Shepherd in our cul-de-sac when we were living in Center City, Philadelphia. and he completely turned our lives around. We discovered how hard it was to travel with him, particularly, because he was breaking weight restrictions at hotels that we were trying to stay at. We had another dog too, we had a Sharpe. And so two dogs, one with you know, weight restriction issues. Trying to travel was really complicated. So and this was back we we found Buster in 2009. is that right? Let me think. 2009, I think, 2010. We launched the website. So we decided to launch a website to make it easy for people to travel with their pets. And it's called gopetfriendly.com. And that, as I was putting that website together. we made a decision that we would sell our house, move into a motor home, and travel the country doing research. Pause on the ground research as we called it. traveling around the country. And then I blogged about the things that we did when we were traveling. And we did that for twelve years and absolutely loved it. Absolutely loved every minute of it and wouldn't trade that time for anything. speaker-0: That was you were ahead you would have been like a a van life, bus life, OG. You were ahead of the curve, my friend. speaker-1: We were all out going out just as the little jet packs, the little cellular jet packs were becoming available. but the you know, we were right there on that cusp. It was if they hadn't been available, we wouldn't have been able to do what we were doing. So I know I remember pulling into to R V parks as you know, the and we would drive all day and then pull into an R V park at night and the first thing Rob would do would be fire up the jetpack. Are we gonna have it are we gonna have internet coverage? It was touch and go back back in the very beginning. But you know, obviously the technology changed over time and and the internet access became a lot easier and more consistent. speaker-0: Yeah, no, I our first year on the road we did the same. We tried to hot spot everywhere and it was so hard to run businesses from roads on a in a a hot spot or a local Wi Fi. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. It was a challenge, no doubt. I mean, by the time we finished RVing, when we arrived here in in twenty twenty two, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty one, we had four antennas on the roof of the RV for just for two up and two down. So Rod was running his own antennas and I was running my own antennas because we were both running our own businesses from the from the R V. So we we had a friend who was very technically oriented and he wired us all up and had us running at top speed. But yeah, it you know, it was a little bit of a challenge when we first rolled out. speaker-0: That's funny. I mean what did that season teach you about yourself? speaker-1: I learned a lot during that time. Rod and I learned a lot about communication. living in such a confined space. and also in a way that really there's not a lot of not as much routine as there is, I think, when you live in a house and people go to work every day or you do laundry on Saturday mornings, or this is when we get the groceries. There's a lot of things that go unspoken, I think, when you have a routine. When You're living in a motorhome and both running our own businesses. Any day could be a travel day, a work day, a relaxing day, a goofing off day. Like it any day could be any of those things. And so there we had to really up our level of communication. That was one of the big things. The other thing I think I really got out of that was just an appreciation that I don't always know. the answer to the things that I think I know the answers to. So I think when you see so many different right ways of doing things like you do when you travel, you know, different parts of the country, people have different practices, different habits, different. So what I might think was the way to do something, if I'm in the deep south or I'm in the northwest or I'm, you know, wherever we were, There are they have different ways of doing it that they consider the right way. And so I think after spending enough time on the road, I I really got out of that mentality that this is the way to do a thing. And I look now more at what's the most effective way, what's the most efficient way, what's the most practical way to accomplish something, and not just go down a road because it's what I've always done before. speaker-0: Yeah, that's that's super interesting thought process there. And and a couple of things you hit on that that s resonate with me is that I don't know if you felt this way, but I found that we had to be more disciplined living on the road because like you said, any day could be a fun day. There was always a hike to be had, nobody was watching to see what you were actually doing for the day, so you could do whatever. And it almost took us like that first year to go, wait, okay, we can't just be on vacation every day. Like we can't We have to set hours and do our thing. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Because you're right. It was not and people said all the time, my gosh, you're living the dream. It's so great. You get to be in your RV and travel all over the country. And I'm like, Yeah, it is so great. I'm not denying that. But it we're also not on vacation. You know, we have work to do. We've got things that, you know, deadlines we need to meet and just like you do. speaker-0: Yeah. Do you have any one travel day horror story that just stands out to you to be like people think full time travel is like you said glorified long term vacation, you're living a dream and you're like, Yeah, but you don't know the day we got somewhere and this happened. speaker-1: my gosh. Th there was quite, you know, there are quite a few of those days. one of my favorites is the day we were we were we didn't have a long drive that day. It was a pretty short drive. we were meeting my sister at a campground in Pennsylvania and we were gonna go camping for my birthday. So we're driving in and we get c get to this train trestle. And I luckily they had a place to pull over. Cause I'm looking at the train trestle and I'm thinking, I don't think we're going under there. no. So we pull, you know, we're towing the car. I pull over. we're watching some trucks go by, and I'm thinking, I'm just not warm and feeling warm and fuzzy about trying to take the RV through there. So we decide we're gonna turn around and go back the way we came, two lane highway. Right. So, We get the car detached because you know when you're towing one of those cars, when you're towing your car behind a motorhome, you can't back up. So we had to detach the car, do this, I don't know how many point turn to get turned around and get back going the other way. So now I'm in the RB by myself, 37 feet, class A diesel pusher. Rod's in the car because why bother hooking the car up again? We're all we're like within five miles of the campground. So he's behind me in the car. So we go so we find we route another find another route to get where we're going and we start going. So we come across now we come across construction. I've got to go through across a bridge that's got construction and I might have had four inches of clearance on each side. So I just closed my eyes most of the way through and was just like, I'm just gonna feel my way through, it'll be okay. Made it through, get off the exit, come around the curve, and now we're on the scenic highway in Pennsylvania that has about an eight inch concrete curb along the along the shoulder. So I turn I'm I turn out, I'm heading out towards the campground, and now I've got two dump trucks coming my way. And we've both got these eight-inch curbs on the side of the we can't we can't get out of each other's way. So again, you just you know hold your breath and hope that your mirrors don't collide as you go past each other. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: So we finally get into the RV park and we get to our spot and we get set up and I hit the button to put the slide out. And it just goes. Slide's broken. Slide's not going out. That was a day. speaker-0: Ugh. Yeah, those are the ones you remember though. speaker-1: my gosh, I'll never forget it. speaker-0: Yeah. that's amazing. And that's that's the funny thing, right? Like you're towing your whole house with you. So when you get somewhere, it's it's not like you're just on a road trip. You gotta make sure your house is still in shape. speaker-1: Exactly. You don't want it to be a convertible when you get there either. speaker-0: No. And we tow. So we have an airstream that toes behind us. So every time we get parked, it's a surprise when we open the door to see if everything's still where it was or what happened. speaker-1: Like what'd you forget to put away this time, right? speaker-0: g my gosh. Amy last Christmas we were meeting our kids in California and same thing, short travel day should be super easy. We pulled over and got gas. We had like 20 minutes left to go. Everything's perfect. In that 20 minutes we hit a bump that we didn't realize we hit. We get to the place we're camping, open the door, and every spice and oil we had in our cabinet's on the floor. So poor Andrea spent the next like four hours cleaning up basalic vinegars and soy sauces and the joys. That doesn't make that doesn't make your Instagram highlight real. speaker-1: No, no, no, no, because it would be echo you know, you would never be able to get that on Instagram because there would be so much profanity involved that you would never get it on there. You know, absolutely not. We we had tempered glass plates and and bowls come out of a cabinet once and shatter into a bazillion pieces. Sharp pieces too, because that stuff is made not to break, but when it does break, it's really dangerous. And they shattered, came out of the ca hit a bump, came out of the cabinets, shattered all over. They were sprayed across the dogs. We traveled with a you know, I said a German shepherd and a Sharpe. We were luckily we were almost to the campground. We got in that night and Rod said, What can I do to help? And I said, Just take the dogs and get out of here. yeah. I will spend the next four hours cleaning this up. Just take the dogs and go. I'll let you know when it's safe to come home. speaker-0: for sure. Amy, I would love to know what did you learn about the way you see community through your experiences of seeing so many of speaker-1: I guess I would say that the way I see community now is really a feeling. It's a feeling more than a than a than anything else. I f when we got to Bisbee after being on the road for 12 years, there were only a couple other places in the country where we really felt like we belonged. We were kind of instantly involved in things. People invited us into things. It we were it was easy to reach out and talk to people in a coffee shop. It was a cinch to find groups to join and be part of the community. And I think that even if I had moved back to where I grew up right and left when I was 17 years old outside of my own family it would have taken more time to get integrated back into a community, that community, than it took for Rod and I to really feel connected to this community. And it's that's what makes Bisbee so precious to me. speaker-0: Why do you think that is? speaker-1: It's magic. It's magic here. I I think it's somewhat because there are so many people here who have spent so much time traveling and have and come here and feel that magnetic inclusion. There there's something about that, but I'm not sure, you know, it's not just this magical place that just makes you feel like you're at home. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Do you guys have the same experience? speaker-0: Amy, this story's so crazy. I'm gonna share it with you though. So we this is our second time we came to Bisbee. And the first time we were down there, it snowed, and we're like, okay, we're trying to avoid snow, so maybe this isn't the right place to be. Like, that's not good. So that was like four years ago. So last winter we went to Bisbee again, and Andrea had kind of come up with this plan for our next thing is to buy some land and create like a wellness retreat where we could. cater to travelers but also have a community around us and And I wasn't sure that Bispey was right. I w I just wasn't sure. So I kinda spent time like trying to think, why doesn't this make sense? But Amy, to your point, everybody we met was amazing. And every place we went, we got invited to more places and we found more things to do. And we're like, wait, this is a town of five thousand people. How does it possibly have this much culture and diversity and thinking? And so we pulled the tr we pulled the trigger, we bought some land, we moved forward. This summer I was back in Montana at our family visiting our family and my my grandpa had passed away a few years ago. My sister got out some of his papers he had left behind and in one of those was immigration paperwork from our great grandfather who immigrated from Cornwall, England to Bisbee, Arizona. speaker-1: No way. speaker-0: November seventeenth, eighteen ninety two, which is exactly eighty years before I was born. To today. speaker-1: That's incredible. speaker-0: So we're like maybe that's why we are pulled there. It's like our family had actually been there at one point. He was a minor and I didn't even I didn't even know he was my great grandfather because he had passed away when my grandpa was young and so the great grandpa I thought I had was actually my grandfather's stepdad. So like this was a family member we didn't even know about. So yeah, I think serendipity kinda pulls you there. speaker-1: It's magic. It's a you know, it's a magical thing. I don't know how we all end up here, but that is an incredible story. speaker-0: Yeah. And what makes me excited to get down there and go to the archives and put his name into some things to see w how long he was mining there and speaker-1: Yeah, we have that wonderful resource here at the mining museum where we have those archivists who will help you. you know, if you know of a family member who's been in Bisbee, they'll help you go through all the records and things and and figure out where they lived and what they did and how long they were here. speaker-0: Yeah. I think I think maybe that's something that's special about it, Amy, is the fact that Bispy in celebrates their history. Mm-hmm. They're proud of it. But they're not so proud that they can't find new ways to do things or bring in people that have different backgrounds. speaker-1: Exactly. Exactly. They're not stuck like I said, we had a meeting yesterday and I said we can honor our our history without being without encasing ourselves in amber. You know, we'll be we need the world is moving on and and we've got to evolve with it. So and that's a a pretty common consensus here in Bisbee. speaker-0: So let me ask you this, I mean, what your your growth from full time travel and from being on the road and having to improvise and be flexible, but also be disciplined. How does that growth and what you learn from that chapter of life show up in the leadership you're doing today? speaker-1: Well, I think that, you know, possibility s you know, thinking, what Rod and I call possibility thinking. So we had a friend that introduced us to this term a number of years ago and it it was so useful when we were traveling and it's one of those skills that just you never run out of uses for it. So if something's not working or it doesn't appear to be working out in one particular because you're taking one particular route to get something done, to look at what other possibilities there are to get to the same place, for example. So if I want to build a new house, if I want a new house, let's just say I want I want a new house and or I want house. Let's take the new out. I want a house and I'm trying I think I want to build a house. And so I'm looking for land and I'm looking for a a contractor and I'm looking at floor plans and trying to design this thing. And it's not and it feels like I'm bumping up against a lot of roadblocks. There's a lot of hurdles that seem to be in the way. to just steck take a step back and and and look at the other possible ways I could possibly get to having a house. And you know, maybe check the real estate market and see what's up for sale. Maybe check. some different with some different friends and see if they might know of something that might be coming up of becoming available. Maybe look at different avenues to get to what you want. And I think in leadership that's really important to not be so stuck in your own mindset of how this one thing has to be done and to say okay this is my idea. for how we might do this. Let's talk about your ideas. And then we'll we'll come to a consensus about the way we're gonna try to approach this. But then we're gonna keep in mind that if this doesn't, even if we come to consensus, if this isn't panning out the way we thought it would, we're gonna stay we're gonna stay nimble. We're gonna stay flexible and we're gonna keep finding a way to keep moving forward. even if it's not down the s path that we thought we were going. speaker-0: That sounds like a road trip. speaker-1: Life is a road trip in my speaker-0: Yeah, that's what it literally sounds like. Like we do all this research, we set our routes and then we head out and we're like, wait, we gotta take a detour. And on that detour we might find the most magical place that we didn't know existed just because we were open to the possibility. speaker-1: Yep. That's how you allow serendipity to work in your life, right? speaker-0: Man, that's amazing. I I I was trying I was thinking my next question for you. Before I ask you a question, I wanted to share what really attracted me to to what you were doing. And I don't even know you probably won't remember this 'cause you met so many people. But what was attractive to me was we met you at the farmers market and I walked over to your your shade tent there and kinda introduced you and said we're looking at moving down here and just wanted to feel like why you were running for mayor and you answered a question and I don't even remember what the question was or what your answer was, but what was so impressive to me is you had a gentleman there that was your coach. And he you immediately looked for feedback and he was like, I you could have said this. This is a more open-ended answer. And he you you took feedback right then. I was like, wow. Like look how impressive that is. And in a day and age where everybody wants to be right and we have this image of being perfect and we put up these walls that kind of pigeonhole us where we only want to be around people that think like us and believe like us. And you are actually getting feedback and taking coaching in a public forum. speaker-1: I have been so lucky to have people around me just show up around me and want to help. And the gentleman you're talking about has been pivotal. He was pivotal in the campaign. He's been pivotal through all of this. He's so talented in he's worked with performers, in mostly singers, with their vocals and how to vocalize and how to get the message that they're trying to communicate across through their music. And so when he said that he wanted to help, I had been I lived in a motor home for twelve years, only basically talking to my spouse and my dogs. Like there wasn't a lot of opportunity for you know, a lot of of public speaking. So when I found out that he had those skills and he was willing to help, He he was my coach through the forums and you know, coming to the farmers market and just helping me use those muscles. First we had to knock the rust off, right? Because in my previous life as a as a CPA and then working as a business appraiser, Rod and I both did quite a bit of public speaking. We did some teaching and we did some presentations and different and we talked to our clients, of course, all the time and and boards Company boards and things like that. But it had been a lot of years. I needed to knock the rust off from all the years of not doing that. And then to start to work those muscles again and and figure out, you know, I have a harder time memorizing things now than I did 30 years ago, right? It's not as easy as it used to be. So trying to figure out little skills and little ways of of presenting and Even the words that I emphasize, like that's one of the things that he really works on me when I do a I've been doing weekly videos and he he's there, still he's there with me when I record my videos and says, Well, I think you want to emphasize this or I think this is the way to say this sentence to get across what you're what you're really trying to the point you're really trying to make. And so yeah, he's been great. And gosh knows, I don't know everything. I can't. I can't know everything. So and that's part of I think the campaign too was I fully understand. I've only lived in Bisbee now. I'm coming up on five years, but that's like only five years. There's a lot I don't know. So but I also know there are people here who do know. And I'm happy to work together and have and learn and listen and and take that information on as much as I can and work together to come to the best solutions. I don't come into this thinking, my way is the best way and here's how we're gonna do it. Yeah, I've kind of I guess I've outgrown that in my life. speaker-0: Well, I think we're supposed to outgrow it, right? I think that's for most of us that's how we spend our twenties, running around thinking we're right about everything. And you get to a certain age you're like, Man, I don't know nothing. I know literally nothing about this topic. speaker-1: And it's okay. That's what's fun about life, is now I've got something new I get to figure out. speaker-0: So I was just gonna say that makes it fun because instead of trying to defend my positions, I'm open to learning. And what it what I loved was you had a local person helping you impact a local community. And you're open to it. Right. And I think that's what at least in my time traveling and what I've seen is is small towns, a place like Bisbee's open to you if you want to help Bisbee. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: Right. If you want to be part of it. And that's that's I guess the feeling I get is almost everybody I met that's moved there are serving on boards, they're volunteering at the library, they're doing things to help Bispee. And I and that was the feeling I got from you is like you were doing this to help Bisbee. So talk to me about how important that community participation is. for a place like Bisbee, for a a town to really thrive and to be able to embrace its past yet still move forward to be relevant in the future. speaker-1: Yeah, it's vital. It's absolutely vital that we have we're a small town, as you've said. We've got a little bit we have a little bit less than five thousand people who live here. And but we've got a lot of things that you wouldn't expect in a town this size. You know, a a wonderful hospital, a fantastic library, a a gorgeous swimming pool, you know, we've got all kinds of wonderful businesses and But we couldn't have all of those things. We've got our own, I should have mentioned we've got our own radio, local radio station. Like we we couldn't have all of those things if the people in this community weren't volunteering to make those things happen. We just don't have the pocketbooks, we're doing the deep pocketbooks that it would take for the city organization to support all of those things. So the individual people who live here and are passionate about whatever that it is that they're passionate about, they take it on and they pick up the mantle and they and they carry it forward. And we're so lucky to have that. speaker-0: Yeah, for a small town, I was blown away at the amount of talented people that are living there, and artists, the musicians, the the storytellers, the writers. speaker-1: It's incredible. The creative people that are drawn here. speaker-0: Yeah, it's very interesting. So Yeah, no, I a hundred percent agree. We I can't there was every night we were going out to something, whether, you know, watching listening to music, the festivals, and we just couldn't honestly we just couldn't find a reason why that shouldn't be our next home. speaker-1: Yeah, I mean and we haven't mentioned the weather. I mean also the weather's incredible. speaker-0: Yeah. Monsoon season's just about to wrap up. speaker-1: Yeah, we're just wrapping up. I think we've had about twenty-five inches of rain this monsoon season. It's been it's been a really, really productive monsoon, which is great for us because we, you know, the other concern if we don't get enough rain is we worry about fire. So this has been a beautiful monsoon season and Bisbee is so green. We're so green. And being at five thousand feet in elevation, you know, I think people think about southern Arizona and they don't consider the fact that There are mountains here. So we're not having the same kind of weather that they're having in Tucson and and Phoenix, right? Our weather is gorgeous. Rod and I love that we live in Old Bisbee, so we're able to really walk everywhere we need to get to in a particular day. We've got the post office and the library and the coffee shop and the groceries a little grocery store in town and you know, a handful of restaurants to eat at. So we don't even have to get in the car if we don't want to. it's just a really magically wonderful place. speaker-0: No, I I love it. What about this? What about here's an idea I had. What if we make Bispy the new center for modeling how adults can create space for disagreement without losing respect for one another? To be a model of civil discourse and civil engagement. speaker-1: Absolutely. And that's truly what we're hoping to create here. Or or I shouldn't say create because it's not that it isn't happening. We're looking to build on it, to elevate it. I'm yesterday we had a meeting, we had 60 people show up to take part in what we're calling for right now work groups to help me get prepared. I've got about 11 more weeks until I'm I'm sworn in as mayor. And so these We've got eight groups who are taking on a topic to do the research and do the possibility thinking and do the consensus building and prepare a report and and bring that to me so that I've got that in my hip pocket when I'm sworn in. So we had sixty people in person and and another fourteen people via Zoom yesterday. Doing that. We want to get that community engaged. And one of the topics that we discussed is something called the dignity index that I learned about a few weeks ago in a conference that I attended. And it's very much treating people with dignity, addressing them, speaking with them to understand their thoughts and ideas, removing the contempt and from our discourse. And having listen really having these conversations where we're trying to understand each other and each other's perspectives and we may agree have to agree to disagree and that's okay, but to not have it cross over from the topic of conversation to the person, right? We can disagree about topics, but let's not draw lines between each other as people. speaker-0: that's such a a current topic, right? That's something that that the world's really facing. What? So how do we do that, Amy? How do we start to break some bad habits that are, you know, without getting super political, seem to be coming from the top down, the highest levels of our our country that can't seem to sit in a room and act like adults? How do we do that at our level to become the model for others? speaker-1: Well, I think that there are a few things we can do. And the first is to lead by example, right? I try very hard to be conscious of the way I treat people and how I talk with people and listen and tr really truly try to listen to people and understand their point of view. The other thing we can do, I think, is just to raise the awareness of people and say I know that this is what we're seeing on the news and on all you know all the time on social media, every outlet you want you want to bring up, this is what we're seeing. But whether we participate in that. Is our choice. And in my heart, I believe Bisby can do better. We can do better than what we see at the national level. We can be kinder and more understanding and more compassionate and treat people with dignity. And that's what I'm hoping. I think if we just raise the awareness, people's awareness a little bit and say, listen, this is what we're shooting for. I know you're I know this is what you're experiencing on the day-to-day, but this is what we're shooting for. So let's Just try to make a little bit of a change every day, right? Think a little bit harder before you hit send on that email or you publish that post on Facebook or you yeah, or you, you know, lose your temper with this person or that person. and and and then cut them down, right? As a human being. Yeah. Not just say, I disagree with your thought on this. I think if we just recognize we want to do better. We c and we believe we can do better and so therefore we will. speaker-0: I love it. I love that being an expectation, right? Like if we're gonna we're gonna be spending time together, we should both be bringing something to the table and leaving the room with something. That means we have something to offer and we have something to learn. speaker-1: right. That's right. Yeah, moder and self moderating, right? Self moderating. And just saying I'm I'm when I go into this meeting, I am going to be an example of the way I would hope everybody would treat me and listen to my ideas and my thoughts and and have a conversation with me if they don't understand what I'm saying or don't agree with what I'm saying. speaker-0: Yeah, and have grace that we're all imperfect. speaker-1: my goodness, we need a lot more grace in this world. Nobody is perfect. And and just recognizing that and remembering, hey, you know, three days ago I'm the one who was, you know, low blood sugar, end of my patient. Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah, and I think that is the missing component in so much of our life, right? It's just a little bit of grace. Like maybe you're absolutely right. Maybe you just caught me at the lowest moment of my worst day that I've had in a long time. I would hope you'd give me grace to go, Wait, he seems like a nice guy. Like maybe that was a bad day. Or you double check and go, Hey, Jared, I ran into you a couple days ago. You didn't seem like you were doing well. Is everything okay? Right. And that's I think that's what a lot I've loved about Bisbee is Bisbee seems to actually care about people. speaker-1: Yeah, people here really do care about each other. They they really and truly do. I've witnessed it. You know, somebody's struggling in some way and people in this community step up to help. speaker-0: I think a lot of that going back to what you said earlier is that so many people travel and have so many different experiences before they find Bispy, that compassion would be one of the skill traits I would say I've picked up traveling. Kind of like what you were saying earlier. You get somewhere and you thought about the way they're doing things, but their culture's completely different. So you gotta respect that they do it because they believe that's right. think that's just an assumption that comes with the traveling is hey wait, I've never met Amy. I don't know her experiences, I don't know her background. Let me see how she does it. Maybe it's way better than how I've been doing it. speaker-1: Absolutely. It's totally better than the way you've been doing it. Come on over, I'll take my speaker-0: Hey, the bar might not even be that high, Amy. I might not even have that high a bar, to be honest with you. So I I love let me ask you this one, because this is a vibe I get from you and and I I really enjoy it. And what does leading with compassion look like, but still being able to make a hard decision? speaker-1: Ooh, yeah. 'cause there will be difficult decisions. You know, there's that's there's no question about it. Just trying to, I think, keep in mind different the different perspectives on things, really trying as best I can to understand those different perspectives. making sure the communication is the lines of communication are open and as effective as possible is another thing I think really helps. with those situations to to have people know that I heard them. I really made an effort to understand them. And I needed to make a different a decision that was different than what they were hoping for for the benefit of the community, of the more more people in the community. because that's really what the decisions will come down to is what decision benefits the most people in in Bisbee. So but I think if people un know that you have heard them and thought through the decisions that we're not always gonna agree, but they'll respect you for having made the time to understand them. speaker-0: Yeah, I I think you're absolutely right. They'll respect the fact that they at least had a voice in the process. Yeah. speaker-1: Yeah. Most people know that we're, you know, every decision's not gonna go the way that they're hoping. You know, that would not be realistic. So even for me, right? I'm only one of five thousand people. So things aren't always gonna go the way I want them to go either. Right. On a personal level, right? The decisions I make have to be made from kind of like from outside myself, outside my own personal preferences. speaker-0: Yeah, and I think that's why it's so important that you have the people surrounding you that you do, that you've reached out to the community to give people chances to provide input, be part of the processes. So that we're not just seeing how we thought we saw it, but we're getting all the data, all the information, all the perspectives. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. And that's why it's so vital that we, you know, we c it kind of comes back around to the fact that I know I don't know everything. And I'm counting on people to teach me and to and to bring me those perspectives and and thoughts so that we can work together for the best solutions. speaker-0: So as you get ready to step in office, we're still January, still got a few months, we got a fall to get through in the holiday season. What are you most hopeful and excited about? speaker-1: Well, first of all, swearing in actually happens on December first. So we've got we've got Thanksgiving but in there, but then December first is when I'll be sworn in. So I I'm most excited for the possibilities of the things I don't even see yet, right? Of the opportunities to spread the word about Bisby to more people, to the people that I'll meet through this process and get to spend time with. and and the possibilities for Bisbee and where this community will want to go next and how I'll be able to help facilitate that. Those are the things that excite me the most, I think. speaker-0: I love that. And you said something there that I always that resonates with me and that is I'm usually excited about the people I'm gonna meet tomorrow. Right? That I don't even know I'm gonna meet, but our paths are just gonna somehow cross. And I'm gonna take some away from that meeting. speaker-1: Yeah. I have a mantra that I really hold all the time. and it's things are always working out for me. even when it doesn't look like things are working out for me, even in the moments where you've driven up to and now you're facing a train trestle that you're not gonna be able to get underneath. that just to remember, take a breath and remember Things are always working out for me. I don't know what I can't right now see where this is go this path is gonna take me, but I'm being sent on a detour and there there is a purpose to it and I'll figure it out when I get there. But just having the faith to know that things are this is for my this is for my bet my betterment, you know, this is the best thing for me. speaker-0: Yeah. No, that's so true. It's always working out in our favor. Sometimes we just gotta get out of our own way. speaker-1: Yeah. Sometimes when we get it's one of those habits, right? You get too stuck, too I get a little too stubborn, a little too convinced that I know how you know, how the how it's supposed to go or how I'm how I'm gonna get from here to there. And then then the universe has a way of saying, Well, not today. speaker-0: Yeah, no, that's a hundred percent true. Amy, I wanna thank you for coming on the show. It's been an honor to get to know you better. I'm excited to be a resident down there with you. Where can our audience connect with you and follow along on your journey? speaker-1: Well, right now we've got the website set up, Amy Burkert for Mayor dot com. So even though I have been elected and well until I'm sworn in, we're gonna keep that website going. So Amy Burkert for Mayor dot com. And then I'm also I also have a Facebook page, very similar, Amy Burkert for Mayor Facebook page. So people can find me there as well. speaker-0: All right, Amy, as I wrap up, I got one last question for you, and that is this. What does a life well-lived mean to you? speaker-1: Life well lived to me means that I will continue learning new things, pushing my boundaries, never getting too comfortable with where I'm at, not wasting a moment of my time here by getting too complacent. I'm not saying I don't want to be content. I do. I like feeling content in in the moment, but but I also there's a certain amount of energy I I get when I'm pushing a little bit more, pushing myself a little bit more to learn or to do or to be something I haven't experienced yet. speaker-0: Fantastic. Amy, thank you so much for joining us. We can't wait to see you in person just a few weeks. And thank you again for having the courage to to step out there and and take on this new role. speaker-1: Yeah, thank you, Jared. This was a joy. speaker-0: Hey everybody, it's Jared Hardy here. If the On Purpose podcast has sparked something in you, maybe a shift, a question, or a deeper dive, my excellence and leadership course is built to help you act upon it. This isn't just about leading others, it's about leading yourself with intention, resilience, and clarity. Whether you're an individual chasing growth or a team ready to level up, I offer custom coaching and speaking engagements to meet you where you are. Visit TeamHarty.net and let's grow with purpose. And remember team, life is far too short to live any other way than on purpose. We will see you all again next week.