Latest / Inside Integration / Episode 109: Remembering John MacDonald

Transcript

Episode 109: Remembering John MacDonald · Inside Integration

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Inside Integration Podcast.
• 0:02
  My name is Chris. I am joined again by my partner
• 0:05
  Jason. What's up, everybody?
• 0:08
  And today we're, we're going to, we're going to, I don't know if
• 0:13
  it's weird. We're this is going to be a
• 0:16
  little bit of a downbeat of an episode, I think, because we're
• 0:20
  all still we're we're kind of reeling over the passing of
• 0:24
  somebody who who we considered a friend, John McDonald from
• 0:28
  Morris Tate here in Southern California was a was a Rep world
• 0:32
  fixture and just a generally just absolutely lovely human
• 0:36
  being, just one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.
• 0:39
  And he he passed unexpectedly last week.
• 0:42
  And we're we're still we're still kind of kind of processing
• 0:46
  that. And as we do this is this is
• 0:49
  this is a bit of a set therapy session.
• 0:51
  So we're, we're, you know, we're, we're, we're kind of kind
• 0:55
  of going through it a little bit and, you know, apologies that
• 0:58
  this isn't going to be our, our probably general generally
• 1:02
  upbeat. Weekly jovial, jokey jokes.
• 1:05
  Yeah, it's not really that episode, I don't think.
• 1:07
  But really, episode is not about us.
• 1:09
  It's really more about John, right?
• 1:11
  I think nobody that knows that man is on an island.
• 1:16
  I wouldn't say for a John McDonald story about about how
• 1:21
  he'd either done something to help them.
• 1:23
  Maybe the first time they met John, you know what, maybe you
• 1:28
  know, getting something that John had done for them.
• 1:30
  And it's feels like if you know, not to put it in the love
• 1:32
  language context, but you know, I think acts of service were was
• 1:37
  certainly one of John's love languages.
• 1:39
  If if such a thing exists. And again, I think everybody
• 1:43
  that knows him would, would be a benefactor to that, you know, to
• 1:48
  that kind of outrage in the way that John communicated and
• 1:51
  operated in the world. Yeah, full, full agree.
• 1:54
  You know, he the the man was he, he was not my Rep.
• 1:59
  He was in a different territory, you know, when I was a dealer
• 2:02
  out here. But you know, he was just a guy
• 2:04
  who was, was so woven into the fabric of just this industry
• 2:09
  and, and Southern California in particular.
• 2:12
  You know, every, every integrator knew the guy.
• 2:14
  Every integrator had a, had a, had a positive story about him.
• 2:17
  Every, you know, everyone really aspired to, to, to be what he
• 2:21
  was. And you know, it's, it's, it's
• 2:24
  incredibly sad when you lose somebody like that, but it's
• 2:28
  very positive because you hear a lot of the, you know, the, the
• 2:33
  outpouring of, you know what, what somebody like that's legacy
• 2:37
  is, you know, where, you know, you go through this life and we,
• 2:42
  you know, we try to keep food on the table.
• 2:44
  We try to be the best kind of people we are.
• 2:48
  And some people do. Some people do you know, I I
• 2:52
  would I would, I would say that that's how I try to live my
• 2:54
  life. Pretty sure it's how you do
• 2:56
  yours as well. But you know, when, when you
• 3:00
  hear just the, the, the positive stories and you know, you hear
• 3:05
  how this man touched so many lives, you know, in, in, in this
• 3:08
  industry. And you know, don't get me
• 3:10
  wrong, this industry is, is a, is a pimple on the ass of life,
• 3:14
  right? It's very, this is a very, very
• 3:16
  small and, and you know, very small reach and range.
• 3:22
  But you know, within it just just to be a good human being
• 3:26
  and to be somebody that everybody, you know, revered and
• 3:29
  loved, you know, that's a that's a really great legacy and.
• 3:33
  Yeah, You know, nobody wants to aspire to the their funeral, you
• 3:37
  know what I mean? Like nobody wants to nobody's
• 3:41
  aspiring to a bunch of people standing around telling good
• 3:45
  stories about you. But it's not a bad way to be,
• 3:48
  you know, eulogized or be remembered.
• 3:50
  And I don't I don't know how else to classify this because
• 3:53
  literally we're having our pre show meeting as we're recording
• 3:56
  it. So that's that's kind of
• 3:57
  exciting, but I think John would appreciate.
• 4:01
  That like working through, like working through raw emotions of
• 4:04
  a loss, you know? Life let's record that it's yeah
• 4:11
  it's it's a it's really a crazy thing but you know to to see
• 4:15
  that kind of outpouring on online apparently this week as
• 4:20
  we record this light of palooza is happening so there's some
• 4:23
  people rocking Hawaiian. I know John's trademark Hawaiian
• 4:26
  shirt at the show. So I mean, to have that kind of
• 4:32
  reverence paid to you, you know, while you're alive, obviously
• 4:35
  is, you know, is, is wild. But certainly In Memoriam is
• 4:41
  again, just a testament to who John is, who John was as a
• 4:45
  person, but you know, also as a professional.
• 4:47
  And I think, you know, outside of all the good stuff a guy was
• 4:51
  doing as a person, most people would know him for all the good
• 4:54
  stuff he did for them as a professional.
• 4:57
  And I think the list is, is storied it long, frankly.
• 5:01
  Yeah, and, and, and seemingly unending, you know, just just
• 5:05
  stories coming out left and right of, you know, just just
• 5:08
  people with fond memories of, of this guy, you know, and, and I
• 5:12
  mean, you know, I, I can tell you probably, probably mine here
• 5:16
  is, you know, just just little things like, you know, when I,
• 5:21
  when I left my old gig and, and got into a new gig, like Jon was
• 5:24
  the first one to call me up and was like, aside from Jason, who
• 5:27
  was like, holy shit, thank God you're out.
• 5:31
  Jon was like, like out of the blue, just called me up and was
• 5:35
  like, hey, heard the news man, congratulations.
• 5:37
  And and that's great. And like, I didn't really have a
• 5:39
  super close relationship with the guy.
• 5:41
  Like, you know, we're, you know, very cordial and he's just a
• 5:44
  warm dude. And, you know, we just kind of,
• 5:47
  you know, would, would, would see each other and stuff and,
• 5:49
  and be, you know, very cordial to each other and, and, and
• 5:51
  whatever. But for him to make the effort
• 5:54
  and just reach out and, and just say, Hey, Congrats, man.
• 5:56
  You know, this is, I know, I know you were really struggling
• 6:00
  where you were. And, you know, like for him to
• 6:03
  know that and for him to reach out and, and, and acknowledge
• 6:05
  that and, and say that just again, out of the blue.
• 6:08
  I mean, it meant like, it meant the world to me.
• 6:10
  And, you know, that's just the kind of person he he was, man,
• 6:14
  just, you know, just trying to make everybody's day a little
• 6:18
  brighter so. Yeah.
• 6:19
  You know, I would say that, you know, if you could wrap it up
• 6:23
  into a couple of words, not that you can put, you know, John into
• 6:26
  two words, but class act kind of just, you know, I mean, those
• 6:30
  are the 1st 2 words at least that come to mind when I think
• 6:33
  of John. Just absolute class act.
• 6:34
  And on a lot of, on a lot of levels, you know,
• 6:37
  professionally, of course, personally, you know, the
• 6:40
  outreach that you mentioned, you know, you have some change in
• 6:42
  your life or something like that was that emotional intelligence
• 6:46
  and that, you know, connected tissue.
• 6:48
  I think that really made John really good as again, not only
• 6:52
  as a professional, but you know, on a personal level, I know
• 6:56
  from, from, you know, just Speaking of, you know, outreach
• 6:59
  and stuff like that. You know, I've made some changes
• 7:01
  along the way here and John was really, really supportive of all
• 7:04
  of that to me. I know that, you know, we had
• 7:08
  talked about, you know, what, what the future looked like.
• 7:12
  And I'm going to miss conversations like that with,
• 7:16
  with a guy like John, just because he had such a deep
• 7:19
  wealth of knowledge and a lot of experience and, and I think a
• 7:23
  healthy perspective because I, you know, I don't think he was
• 7:26
  afraid to call anybody kind of on their, on their BSA little
• 7:29
  bit, which absolutely or for a counterpoint and in a healthy
• 7:33
  and respectful manner. And you know, I, he has
• 7:35
  appreciated about that, about John that and he always had a
• 7:38
  knife in his pocket if he needed to, if he needed to cut
• 7:41
  something. John, I mean, you don't even
• 7:44
  need to ask. You just look in John's
• 7:46
  direction and there's a knife coming out of his pocket.
• 7:50
  And you know, he actually, he bequeathed me with a, with a pen
• 7:54
  and a knife that were already coveted items in my collection.
• 7:58
  But again, things all absolutely be continuing to cherish as as
• 8:04
  time goes forward. Yeah, And I mean, again, it's
• 8:09
  just story after story after story of just little little
• 8:13
  touches and and little I I was reading something on on
• 8:15
  LinkedIn, you know, Mark, Mark from Sonance had a, you know,
• 8:21
  had a really great relationship. Marx Tate is the sonance reps
• 8:24
  here in Southern California. So I had a very close
• 8:26
  relationship between, you know, their their firm and Sonance.
• 8:29
  So, you know, these guys are interwoven, you know, pretty
• 8:32
  deep and not to, you know, yeah, like family.
• 8:35
  Exactly, you know, not to not to steal barks, Thunder or
• 8:38
  whatever. But I did read this online, so
• 8:41
  it's public, so I'm going to share it.
• 8:42
  You know, there's it's it's this great story of how, you know,
• 8:46
  after 911, things were really weird.
• 8:49
  I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah.
• 8:50
  After 911 things were really weird.
• 8:52
  And, you know, nobody knew what to do and nobody knew what was
• 8:54
  going on and and and that sort of thing.
• 8:56
  And you know, apparently Mark was supposed to go back East
• 9:00
  where he's from go Giants. And you know, he's he was trying
• 9:05
  to figure out just T Jersey boys chopping it up, talking about
• 9:09
  pork roll, egg and cheese. But you know, so you know, I
• 9:13
  guess, you know, Mark and John had gotten in contact with each
• 9:15
  other and you know, they ended up going camping together.
• 9:18
  I'm not going to, you know, look for look for it on a on on
• 9:21
  LinkedIn. You know, it's a great story,
• 9:23
  but, you know, basically, you know, Jon reached out and was
• 9:25
  like, hey, have you ever gone camping?
• 9:27
  And Mark had not. And Jon basically took, took
• 9:29
  Mark out into the woods for a few days to do some shooting and
• 9:32
  some camping and, you know, had a had some great times around a
• 9:36
  campfire. And like, that's just, you know,
• 9:38
  Jon saw somebody in need and reached out and that's that's
• 9:42
  the person he was. So yeah, again, huge, I mean,
• 9:47
  massive loss. You know, there's definitely in
• 9:50
  this industry, not to, not to turn to a, a negative slant
• 9:53
  here, but there, there definitely seems like in this
• 9:55
  industry, a guys who could do things the right way and guys
• 9:59
  who do not do things the right way.
• 10:01
  And companies fall on either side of this line and individual
• 10:05
  people fall on the side, on either side of the line.
• 10:07
  And there's, there's very much a, there's very much a group of
• 10:12
  people who try to uplift everybody, try to be positive
• 10:16
  all the time, try to, you know, be real and not just about the
• 10:19
  sales dollars and, and getting in all those orders before the
• 10:22
  end of the month and, and that kind of thing.
• 10:24
  These are people who are more like, how can I help you?
• 10:27
  How can I do more for you? What, what do you need from me
• 10:31
  to better yourself? And John was absolutely one of
• 10:35
  those people. And, and that's, you know, I
• 10:38
  think that's the, that's the headline here, you know, that,
• 10:40
  that, that light has, has gone. And it's, it's, it's, it's
• 10:46
  always, it's always rough when you lose 1 of the good ones,
• 10:49
  man, you know? Yeah, you're, you're not wrong
• 10:51
  about that. You know, I, I was thinking
• 10:52
  about stories and stuff about people.
• 10:56
  And, you know, one of the things that sticks out in my mind is
• 10:58
  how generous John was to people that he didn't know.
• 11:02
  And certainly living up in Simi Valley where it's, you know,
• 11:05
  kind of a different parallel to the sun, it's a, it's akin to
• 11:10
  it's, it gets a little warm up there in the summertime.
• 11:13
  And to see John driving around, he always had food in his car.
• 11:17
  He always had bottles of water for people that were in need.
• 11:21
  And I personally saw John give away food and go looking for
• 11:25
  people that needed help, you know, with a drink or, you know,
• 11:29
  people that are on the side of the road that needed a hand.
• 11:32
  You know, I watched John pull over when I was travelling with
• 11:35
  him in my Sony days and bust out some cold waters and bust out
• 11:39
  some Mres out of the back of his car.
• 11:41
  And I was like, what? What's going on there?
• 11:43
  He's just like, yeah, You know, I just sometimes when I see
• 11:46
  people that look like they need a hand to just, you know, throw
• 11:49
  him some food and throw him a couple of waters and carry on.
• 11:51
  And it wasn't even like, look at me.
• 11:54
  Look at me. It was just like, yeah, I just
• 11:55
  got to take care of this thing real quick.
• 11:58
  And I feel like, you know, again, that that acts of
• 12:01
  service, you know, that that reach, I know outreach to people
• 12:05
  that look like they might need some help.
• 12:07
  Now that certainly resonated with me.
• 12:09
  That is not something that you see, I think on a regular basis
• 12:15
  from from anybody at any walk of life.
• 12:17
  But, you know, John purposely planning to have these things in
• 12:22
  the car and purposely thinking and actively looking for people
• 12:25
  that were in need. Again, I think just speaks to
• 12:28
  the kind of person that he is. And and I think moreover,
• 12:33
  reasons to be a, you know, role model.
• 12:35
  John, I I know I kind of scold him.
• 12:38
  I was, I was lucky enough to tell him here recently about a,
• 12:40
  you know, a change that I made. And he was actually one of the
• 12:44
  first people that I talked to about it.
• 12:45
  And yeah, it was, it was fun to be able to tell him that, you
• 12:50
  know, part of the part of the things that I learned about the
• 12:53
  business were, you know, because of working with him and working
• 12:56
  with the family that I've got over at Morris Tate.
• 12:58
  You know, a lot of love for the people over there.
• 13:01
  They took a young wipersnapper from from another state, another
• 13:07
  country. Just a mirror.
• 13:08
  Canadian. Babe in the wild.
• 13:11
  Yeah, just a young Beaver is down on a.
• 13:12
  Tree. Exactly.
• 13:15
  But you know, they all taught, taught me a lot about the Rep
• 13:19
  business and about how the market worked and and one of the
• 13:21
  biggest markets in the country, if not the biggest.
• 13:24
  And it was again, my privilege to learn from some of the best.
• 13:28
  And I'll certainly put John on my list of people that I learned
• 13:32
  a lot from. And I was getting glad to be
• 13:34
  able to to share that with him. And you know, again, hopefully
• 13:37
  we can all emulate a little bit of John McDonald when we're out
• 13:40
  there dealing with customers or dealing with our friends or
• 13:43
  vendors or what have you, because again, class act all the
• 13:45
  way around. Class act all the way.
• 13:48
  And yeah, if, if, if, if you happen to own a floral pint or
• 13:52
  Hawaiian shirt, you know. Put it on make sure make sure
• 13:56
  it's real Hawaiian shirt though, like what's there's something
• 13:59
  that John John toed the line for me on something one time that
• 14:04
  has has stuck with me. So this is appropriate.
• 14:07
  So don't get enough Hawaiian shirt that says made in China on
• 14:11
  it. OK, So the one thing you don't
• 14:12
  want to do is be taking that you know those textual jobs on that
• 14:18
  that financial opportunity away from the people of Hawaii.
• 14:21
  So you should be absolutely making sure that your shirt says
• 14:25
  Made in Hawaii on. It yeah make make sure your yeah
• 14:28
  your your Hawaiian shirt is single origin domestically
• 14:31
  produced by. John, John was pretty incensed
• 14:35
  about that with me. So as a result, I don't have any
• 14:38
  Hawaiian shirts that say made in China or Vietnam anywhere on
• 14:41
  them so. Yeah.
• 14:45
  You know, and I mean, that's, that's something too that you
• 14:48
  know, when you've, when you've got principles, right, whether
• 14:50
  whether they be, you know, defining characteristics of a
• 14:53
  Hawaiian shirt or, you know, how you, how you conduct business
• 14:57
  in, in your life, that is, you know, that's a good thing.
• 15:01
  You need you need those builders, man.
• 15:04
  I agrees it's a it's a road, you know, integrity, you know,
• 15:08
  again, class act integrity. Those, those are the things when
• 15:11
  I think about John that come to mind immediately.
• 15:14
  And again, not I know that I'm not on an island with that.
• 15:17
  I know, I know I didn't, I'm not the only one with John
• 15:19
  McDonald's stories. I, you know, neither one of us
• 15:21
  have the kind of history in the Southern California market that
• 15:25
  John had. And certainly there's a lot of
• 15:28
  people that know not a lot better than you and I do on the
• 15:32
  day-to-day basis, you know, over years and years and years and
• 15:35
  probably have well, don't probably definitely have a a
• 15:37
  million more stories than we've got.
• 15:39
  But it's I don't think they're any less impactful.
• 15:43
  The ones that that we've shared. I mean, I think it's a lot of
• 15:47
  fun to be able to have somebody like that in your life to, to
• 15:51
  always kind of reference and go, you know, what, what would John
• 15:54
  say about this? Or, you know, it's nice when you
• 15:56
  can certainly pick up the phone. But again, I think it's a, it's
• 15:59
  a fair, it's a, it's a not a fair thing.
• 16:03
  It's a good thing to have somebody like that to, to, you
• 16:07
  know, to be your litmus test or to be the, the, the benchmark
• 16:10
  for, for kind of how you operate.
• 16:12
  Well, it's then it's important too, you know, being able to
• 16:15
  identify that kind of yardstick, you know what I mean?
• 16:18
  Like to, to be able to look at a guy and say that that is what I
• 16:22
  want to emulate. Like to, to have somebody like
• 16:25
  John that you're able to do that with is, I mean, it's a, it's a
• 16:28
  blessing for all of us. You know, it, it, it's a, you
• 16:32
  know, when, when you live your life that way, that is you're
• 16:35
  directly benefiting the greater good.
• 16:37
  And that's, that's a very, very noble endeavour.
• 16:40
  And, you know, we're, we're again, we're, you know, we're
• 16:44
  all a little less bright because, because that light has
• 16:47
  gone out, you know, not to get too metaphysical here.
• 16:51
  What can you remember the first time you met John?
• 16:53
  Remember, like the first time you talked to him?
• 16:55
  Yeah, yeah, I would say yeah, probably the probably the first
• 17:00
  time I, I, I met John was at a, you know, it was, it was
• 17:03
  something where when I was working at Cantara, which is,
• 17:05
  you know, Southern California integrator, we were probably at,
• 17:08
  at some event or whatever. And, and I do, I remember he
• 17:12
  wasn't my Rep 'cause that wasn't his territory.
• 17:14
  But, you know, I, I knew him and somebody introduced him or
• 17:16
  whatever. And I remember, you know,
• 17:19
  telling him the story of, you know, getting to know him or
• 17:21
  whatever and, and meet him and tell him the story of like, hey,
• 17:24
  I'm, I'm basically fresh off the boat from, from, from New
• 17:29
  Jersey. You know, this is I'm, I'm new
• 17:32
  to Southern California. And John was, was very, Oh yeah,
• 17:36
  yeah. I met a lot of, you know, there,
• 17:38
  there's a lot of transplants out here.
• 17:39
  I remember him saying that and, and kind of, you know, just
• 17:42
  being welcoming, you know, like that meant a lot.
• 17:46
  You know, obviously, you know, we're not talking about like I
• 17:49
  didn't, you know, I didn't, I didn't come over on a on a on a
• 17:52
  trunk steamer from from some foreign land or something.
• 17:54
  You know, I just got my. Little mouse inside your top
• 17:58
  hat, right? Yeah, I didn't, I didn't travel
• 18:01
  here with Fivel or, you know, any, any of those mice, but you
• 18:07
  know, it, it did it, it, it, it made, it made a good impression.
• 18:11
  It was like, you know, he was very much like, well, hey, man,
• 18:13
  welcome. You know, you're definitely in
• 18:14
  the right place. This is, we've got, you know,
• 18:17
  we've got this and we've got that and we've got the weather
• 18:19
  and, and, you know, he was just very, very nice and, and
• 18:23
  honestly, I don't know if he even knew who I was at that
• 18:27
  point. Like, I don't know that he knew
• 18:28
  that I worked for a pretty prominent integrator, you know
• 18:32
  that, you know what I mean? Like it wasn't kind of that it,
• 18:35
  it didn't feel and, and if he did it, it didn't feel like it
• 18:38
  was just that kind of like, oh, I better get to know this guy
• 18:41
  'cause he's got an, you know, he's got a Direct Line to these
• 18:43
  guys or anything like that. It wasn't, it didn't feel like
• 18:45
  that at all. So I mean, that was, you know,
• 18:49
  that was the first time I met him and it it was very much, you
• 18:52
  know, it left an impression on me.
• 18:53
  But, you know, it sounds like, you know, talking about it now,
• 18:57
  it sounds like such a dumb thing, but that that didn't have
• 19:01
  to be the way it goes. You know, it could have just no.
• 19:03
  Exactly. And then, you know, a person
• 19:05
  blows you off and are gone, right?
• 19:06
  Like you don't have to engage somebody over 5 minutes, but
• 19:09
  that's, you know, the, the, the people who are, who are, who are
• 19:12
  doing it right and who are, you know, revered.
• 19:15
  Yeah, you take the time, you know, you take a little bit of
• 19:17
  time and you, you, you make somebody, you know, you do your
• 19:19
  best to fill somebody else's bucket as, you know, as the.
• 19:22
  As the analogy, sure, yeah, you don't want to yuck on anybody
• 19:25
  else's Yum. No, certainly not.
• 19:27
  You want to get them, you want to build them up And and I think
• 19:30
  again, I just indicative of the kind of person that Jon is,
• 19:33
  right, just like not not being fake, not really being
• 19:39
  disingenuous, actually having a genuine interest.
• 19:41
  I can remember first time I met him was with when Sony went to
• 19:46
  independent reps You know, Morris Tate was the Rep from du
• 19:49
  jour in Southern California, and that was the first time I would
• 19:52
  I remember meeting John was in their office.
• 19:56
  And, you know, obviously that's a pretty wild set of
• 20:00
  circumstances because I know I'm.
• 20:02
  I'm there with the red principle and it's a whole new thing and
• 20:05
  these guys are kind of looking at across the table at so many
• 20:08
  guys going like, what is this? I don't know if it's going to
• 20:10
  work because, you know, we, we forget that, you know, we'll go
• 20:16
  in the Wayback Machine 20, 20. Let's see, let's see 2013. 2014
• 20:22
  was a different. Time, right, I mean.
• 20:26
  There there was pterodactyls flying around stuff still right.
• 20:29
  It was totally different time. Sony was not the was not the CI
• 20:33
  juggernaut that it that it became at that point.
• 20:36
  So the and frankly, the reps are a huge part of the reason that
• 20:41
  the whole thing blew up. So the, the dawn of, of that was
• 20:46
  really a bunch of early meetings and I can remember meeting John
• 20:49
  and the Morris State team at their office and just John being
• 20:54
  like kind of like the most chill dude of the bunch.
• 20:58
  You know, like I knew Darren, I knew Darren Kolodaluk already
• 21:02
  through some, you know, some events that we had done.
• 21:04
  Canadians all know each other. Well, yeah, there is that
• 21:07
  Alberta, there is that Alberta homing beacon, like, yeah,
• 21:10
  right. You're, you're, you're from
• 21:12
  around here. You understand what poutine is
• 21:15
  and you've been to A&W before, so yeah.
• 21:17
  Alberta beef wavelength. Right, teen, teen teen burgers
• 21:22
  or Vermont's burgers, you got to figure it out.
• 21:24
  But regardless of that, it's yeah, regardless of that, you
• 21:31
  know, I can remember meeting them and again, John just making
• 21:35
  that impression on me. It just like, and this guy's
• 21:37
  like really chill, really engaged.
• 21:39
  He's kind of seemed like a veteran.
• 21:41
  And that was, you know, my impression.
• 21:42
  And then we invited them to Sony HQ and we met them there.
• 21:48
  And that was really the point where, you know, John and I
• 21:52
  think really engaged because it was all about history.
• 21:55
  And John was such a a history buff and knew so much from his
• 21:59
  own experience. But also was keen to walk down
• 22:03
  the hall of patents. And if you don't know what I'm
• 22:07
  talking about it in in one of the Sony buildings, they had a
• 22:10
  hallway that's probably, Oh my God, at least 50 yards long,
• 22:16
  where floor to ceiling was all of the patents that they had,
• 22:19
  like on plaques on the wall, like just plaques on plaques, on
• 22:23
  plaques on plaques. John and I were walking down the
• 22:26
  hallway and we were looking at the different, different patents
• 22:29
  on the wall and we were talking about the history of it.
• 22:32
  And, you know, that was really where I think I met John as a
• 22:34
  person was, you know, really engaging with him.
• 22:37
  And I think kind of he met me, you know, from that respect as
• 22:41
  well. And I always enjoyed a good
• 22:44
  personal relationship outside of the professional one with him.
• 22:47
  And, you know, to, to sum it all up, I'm definitely bombed.
• 22:50
  He's gone. Definitely shocked when I heard
• 22:53
  the, when I heard the news, but going to do my best to where
• 22:57
  appropriately sourced Hawaiian shirts carry a knife in my
• 23:01
  pocket at all times and try to be the try to be, you know, try
• 23:06
  to be the best person and, and professional that I can be.
• 23:09
  You know, not, not as a, you know, not as just an homage to
• 23:12
  John, but because it's the right thing to do.
• 23:14
  And I think more people could can learn from that example for
• 23:18
  sure. Be like John.
• 23:20
  You know, no. No doubt he was he was a guy.
• 23:23
  What what kind of always struck me about him and especially
• 23:26
  thinking back on it, you know, you, you kind of always feel
• 23:28
  like somebody like that's always going to be around, you know,
• 23:30
  which makes us hard, right? Like this, this sudden loss like
• 23:33
  that is, is is hard. But he was always the guy, you
• 23:39
  could call him up, you could text him, you could send him an
• 23:41
  e-mail or whatever it was. And you could ask him, Hey,
• 23:44
  what's your, you know, what do you think of this?
• 23:46
  What is your opinion on this? And he would give you
• 23:48
  unvarnished what you know, absolutely.
• 23:51
  And and. Well, Chris?
• 23:53
  Yeah, you know, and, and put it in and like, for what it's
• 23:56
  worth, like give you a maybe a perspective that you hadn't
• 23:59
  considered and, you know, like thoughtfully answer.
• 24:03
  There was never just a blow off. There was never just a just a,
• 24:07
  you know, I, I got to, I got to get, you know, I got to get this
• 24:10
  guy off my plate or whatever. There was always a very
• 24:13
  thoughtful reflection before you got the unvarnished opinion and,
• 24:17
  and, you know, and not just off the cuff or anything like that.
• 24:21
  Just taking the time and, and man, I think that's, you know,
• 24:23
  it sounds like a trend in these stories is like it's just taking
• 24:26
  the time. And I think that's what, you
• 24:30
  know, for me, that's what that's what made that impression
• 24:32
  because you don't have to take the time, you know, you can, you
• 24:35
  can blow this guy off. You can say, oh God, this guy's,
• 24:37
  you know, blowing me up again. No, you, you, you don't have to
• 24:41
  be this way. You can, there's another way and
• 24:43
  it's the right way. And, you know, I think that's
• 24:46
  something that that always struck me about John, you know,
• 24:49
  and, and again, seems to be a pretty common thread.
• 24:52
  You know, this was who the man was.
• 24:53
  And God, man, just that that kind of authenticity and and
• 24:57
  that kind of thing just sorely missed man.
• 25:01
  For sure, for sure. So if you want to honor John, I
• 25:05
  think there's a food bank in Simi Valley.
• 25:08
  I can't remember exactly the the credit I'll, but I'll post about
• 25:11
  that on on Instagram. I'll make sure that that's that
• 25:15
  stuff. And again, this isn't about you
• 25:17
  or me or our website or our stupid podcast or any of that.
• 25:20
  This. Is really just not even a
• 25:22
  little. Just to eulogize our friend and
• 25:25
  to, you know, maybe do a little bit of group therapy between
• 25:29
  them because, you know, not for nothing, I think we're both a
• 25:32
  little bit shell shocked by by the whole thing.
• 25:35
  And it's just, it's wild when when stuff like this happens and
• 25:39
  best you can do is have some good people around you to remind
• 25:42
  you of, of the person and yeah, just kind of how you feel about
• 25:46
  them. So.
• 25:47
  Yeah, and I am. I am feverishly scrolling to
• 25:51
  find, to find the food bank that it is.
• 25:54
  It's the, it's the food Bank of Simi Valley.
• 25:56
  And I can't for the life of me find it right now.
• 25:58
  But yeah, Jason, will, Jason will post about it.
• 26:02
  You know, 'cause that was very near and dear to John's heart.
• 26:04
  And yeah, I, I mean, me and you were kind of going through this,
• 26:09
  'cause we haven't really, you know, your schedule's been nuts.
• 26:11
  We've been both running around and just a couple text messages
• 26:13
  back and forth and and this is the, you know, again, the show
• 26:16
  is a therapy session. A lot of times you.
• 26:20
  Know between us for sure. You know, just trying to trying
• 26:23
  to process things and, and and that sort of deal and yeah, you
• 26:27
  know, gonna, gonna miss the guy. Absolutely.
• 26:30
  So if you can, you know, take this with you out there, you
• 26:35
  know, be kind to each other, try to be try to be as good as you
• 26:38
  can for for yourself and for the people that you work with and
• 26:42
  you know, take care everybody. Bye bye.