Latest / Forget The Noise / 11. Thoughts about Life | Featuring Doug Harkness

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11. Thoughts about Life | Featuring Doug Harkness · Forget The Noise

• Speaker 2: They say motivation is something you want. Discipline is something you need. Obsession is something you have to have. I'm gonna show you what I wanted, how I got it, and how I was obsessed to get there. Another week on Forget the Noise podcast. And this one's going be actually really cool because I feel like I'm at the stage in life 30 years ago where Doug was. He's so involved in the community. Again, I had to pull my notes because his resume was beyond longer than I can describe. So bear with me out during the intro, but I'm excited about this because he's so involved in the community. He's a staple in the community. He's like up there on the totem pole. Everyone knows him. I was just talking to him off camera and said, like, I love how when I go around town and say Doug, everyone's like, ⁓ Harkness. So it's like, I want to be that in the community in 30 years. So this episode actually means a lot to me. I want to dive into some stuff, see where he got, some cool stories I know about him. We're going to get him to brief on. But before we start anything, like this episode is going to show your ROI, like the value you have without an ROI. Like that's what Doug's done over the years with service clubs. involvement in the community, charity and everything. Like he's always done it without the expectations of an ROI. And that's what I love about it because I feel like I'm there in life right now where I want to bring impact and value to people. And he's a veteran in doing that. He's literally done this over and over repetition and proven the point and deposit those receipts. And then on top of that, it's Speaker 1: Like Speaker 2: I I don't even know where to start, Doug. I'm gonna be honest. Like I have so many notes here. It's like we can talk about the importance of volunteering involvement, how the ROI isn't immediate, ⁓ how can build a platform at retribution to be tenfold in a minute. I'm gonna let them dive in, but like I I I honestly I'm kind of blown away because I'm like, I'm looking at the resume, I'm like, this is exactly what I want here. So like let's just dive into an intro about you, and then maybe that'll give some context. To everyone listening out there. Sure sounds good. Yeah. Speaker 1: ⁓ I appreciate all the kind words already. They're not necessary. ⁓ we're gonna have to help you fac track fast track this though, because I don't think ⁓ we're thirty years of heart difference in age, I'll have to help you get going here. Speaker 2: I have been involved in clubs in thirty years and stuff like that. Like I know. So ⁓ Speaker 1: Five, yeah. Okay. I I started ⁓ you know, my job in Orator Precast at a young age and ⁓ got a chance to learn and develop. ⁓ but like a lot of small businesses, there's not a lot of professional development. So when I went in and started doing Rotary was first, and it was just because someone took the time to ask. It was a it was a customer thought it would be, you know, a good thing for me to get out and and ⁓ find out about rotary, and so that's where I went first and I met this great group of people that kind of took me under the wing and taught me how to serve and how to give back. And and it just gave me more than just work. You know, work was great and and I w it was fun and it's still fun. And I meet lots of interesting people every day and I love what I do. but this the volunteering and the service club work was just something extra, you know, and I'd meet more people and they'd help me. And I'd, you know, when I started ⁓ in our club, when I started, you know, when I became club secretary, they'd send me up for training. And it was training and how to deal with people and how to deal with situations and conflict that I wasn't getting in a small business. So even though I didn't go in there specifically looking for that, it was great to get all those things. Speaker 2: And that's what I was trying to get across. Is like you c I can't explain. It's like the unteachable lesson. Like when you start getting involved in these clubs and you start finding like you align with them, it's like you can't explain to someone the way you feel. That's right. Can't like designate an actual feeling to it. There's not like a it makes you happy or makes you ex like excited. There's like I can't like describe the emotion I get out of it, but I'm like I get I get fired up when I go to these events. Like you hear me, I'm probably the loudest one in the event. They don't even give me a microphone anymore. They're just kind of like, hey, you just scream and tell everyone to get in the lobby. I'm like, all right, cool, let's do it. Right. And I love that. So like I love how you touched on that. But we're gonna kind of try to run through everything you do. So if there is an event in town, if it's purposeful or just a generic one event, you're the official unofficial speaker. That's right off the hop. And that's kind of how I met you because like my goal is to eventually speak. Speaker 1: Be honest. Yeah. Speaker 2: Right. And like when I saw you, I'm like, this guy's at every event. I go, And he's good. Like, 'cause there's a thing to speaking. Speaker 1: Yeah, I I don't know how I kind of fell into that. I think I think you and I have talked about it before. When I was in in high school, my parents, they really wanted me to go to university. No one in my family had ever gone to university. They really wanted me to go and they wanted me to not work until I was older because they wanted me to get good grades. And so that's great. But when you're a teenager, you want to have some cash, you know, you want to have some splash around money. And so I I really just fell into ⁓ the Orangeville Legion, the Orangeville Lions Club did these public speaking competitions. And when you won one of them, they give you a check. You know, it might be two hundred or fifty dollars and then you know, you go from the community one to to the next one and they might give you a check for five hundred dollars and you're supposed to put it away for school. But if you were a sixteen or seventeen year old not working, that that was a long way off. So that was my spending money. So it's a pretty geeky, nerdy way to make money, but that's what I did. But what a great lesson it was later in life, because I've always been comfortable, you know, ⁓ situations like this on TV. in a crowd, it doesn't phase me at all. Because I know chances are I'm gonna screw up five times and that's okay because the sun's still gonna come up tomorrow and you know, maybe I can make someone laugh on So the first one. Yeah. So I mean that I mean that's how I I fell into it. And then it just became a thing that I could give because there's so many people not comfortable with that. So a lot of the groups that I got involved in, like Board of Trade Speaker 2: Mm. Speaker 1: There just was nobody else. Yeah. So it became a thing that I just did. It was a way for me to serve and give back and do something that I that I don't mind doing. And I actually worry a little bit about being a little overexposed, you know. I don't I don't I don't want to be that where the somebody shows up and goes, ⁓ I gotta listen to that guy again, right? I just really I just don't ever want that to happen. I never Speaker 2: Thought of that perspective, but like you don't really talk about like anything debatable or controversial. You're just like intro, funny stories. I feel like you have a great relationship with so many people in the community. So like when someone's coming up for like an award or something, you can banter with them and stuff like that. Like, I would never think being up there, like, ⁓ is someone sick of hearing about me? Speaker 1: Yeah. I just I just worry about telling the same old stories over and over again and so I so I I try to do something that's you know, things happen to us in real life. Yeah. And try to try to just, you know, try to find the funny side of some of those things. Speaker 2: I I I love your story, especially like three hit rele placements or whatever why there was always like I feel like every event I went to like story built on the last one. But it was a standalone story. And that's what I love about hearing you speak is like the way you can spin a crowd's attention is kinda like, okay, I know the backstory, but if I didn't and I've actually thought about this, I'm like, if I didn't know the first story, would I understand this one? I'm like, I would. I go, There's just a way you can kinda put I know, maybe I'm like diving into it. Like exactly. Speaker 1: My own Seinfeld episodes. Yeah, right. Yeah. I I spoke on Thursday night, you know, Rotary. ⁓ I'm the incoming president and I did the j I did the job once twenty seven years ago. And it's not something that I strive for anymore. But they just needed someone, right? We've got a lot of young people coming up and they're gonna be great leaders and they just need a little more time. So they asked me and I said, sure, I'd do it one one time again, one year. And I was trying to think of inspiring things to say, and I still had my file from when I was president. twenty seven years ago when I joked that I could just tell the same speech 'cause none of them were there, right? But, you know, things like Y two K and stuff don't have the same ring to them. Yeah, no, right. So yeah, that's what they did then. Yeah. Speaker 2: S. All right, so what we're gonna do is I wanna touch a little bit on business first. And so I read a quote the other day, it was impact and legacy isn't built in a highlight reel overnight. And I feel like that kinda describes you within Oranville Precast because I love how you say you're a summer student that never left. Right? Right. So like with their history at Orangeville Precast, like how do you find like today's workforce that like Always looking for something better, always looking for something faster because you've been there so long. Like I feel like that era of employees is kind of gone. Like the loyalty, it's kinda like me as a business owner, I find like they're very in and out, quick looking for something better tomorrow rather than the long term investments. Like when I have employees, I'm like, We'll start you at this baseline, but you gotta understand in three months you're gonna get benefits. Like we're gonna bump you twenty percent in pay in three months versus five percent. Speaker 1: I get. Speaker 2: Over the next ten years. Like people aren't looking at the long term game. They're looking at the right now. Instead of being here at thirty five dollars an hour, I can go there tomorrow and get forty, but you're gonna be at forty for the next fifteen years. Here you'll get two dollars every year. Like, you know what I mean? It's that kind of mentality. So being there for as long as you have been, have you seen that turn in generation? Speaker 1: ⁓ yeah, I guess my own stay with itness is is I love small business. You know, I've I've had chances to go to bigger business as suppliers. They still sometimes call. And I just I wouldn't want to work in a place where I didn't know everybody. So it's great coming in every day and there's a chat. If I even if I'm busy, I live here in the banter in the front counter. Yeah. You know, what what the the guys and women out there are talking about, you know, just things are going on in the world, it's great. Yeah. ⁓ Part of it too is my parents taught me my work ethic. You know, both my parents got up early. ⁓ they'd be gone before we went left for school when we were in high school. Like we, my brother and sister and I had to get ourselves ready. I mean, lunches were made, like there was no we didn't miss anything by them not being there. Like we were old enough to fend for ourselves. ⁓ but they taught us that. Like, get up and to work and everything will be okay. And so even though they were extremely hard workers, just circumstance, there was layoffs and stuff that And I can remember those as a kid when there was like hardly any money. We didn't we weren't missing anything. There was always food to eat. There was always a a warm house to come home to. But yeah, there was times where they really had to scrape by. And so when I kind of lucked into, you know, a a really good job that that was paying me well that I enjoyed doing, there was really no thought about leaving. You know, it it that impact of of what I grew up with as a childhood, it it it just I wasn't gonna be that person. But in our place To answer your question better about the turnover, yes, I see it. Well we don't have as a company a lot of turnover. Our our retention rate is really strong. And I think it's because we have a strong culture. People like to come to work. Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw it on the board, and that was gonna be my next question. Is like internally though, do you find your company in specific with a small business? Because I find small businesses a little bit less than a larger company. Yeah. But once people get into that corporate franchise kind of style, they rotate a lot faster. That's right. But small businesses, like when we walk out here, you can see on my whiteboard, it literally says culture each structure for breakfast. And are you finding that like since you've been there so long, culture is a big factor in retaining those guys that tend to like Turn over a logic current, it's kinda like you draw them in and kinda say Speaker 1: We keep it. We keep all ⁓ yeah. Speaker 2: Sell that culture though right off the hot because if I Speaker 1: You know, culture is a is a is a tough word. I there's there's companies locally that I admire for their culture. And it's taken me a while to recognize our culture. You know, it wasn't a purposely planned thing and it's changed. And now that we think about it more, we do plan for it a little more, right? But but it w I don't want to say we lucked into it, but we one of the things that that our guys really like about our place is there's not tons of supervision. Yeah. Here's what we expect you to do today. Here's the jobs we need you to do. Go do ⁓ I've got work to do. He's got work to do. Go to your stuff. And ⁓ we'll we'll see you tonight at the end of the day and find out how everything went. And they love that. But not everybody can handle that. Yeah. Some people need someone over their shoulder all day making sure they're getting things done. Those type of people don't last in their place. I see. The people that that, you know, want to work, make some money, work with some good people, go home. They love it, they stay. And and even though they might start it, you know, they they might be able to get something pretty quickly a couple like you were saying, a couple hours more. Once they get in and realize how much they like it there and know that they're in it for the long haul, they stick around. We've got a lot of employees that have been with us ten, fifteen, twenty years. Speaker 2: That's amazing. And like that's something to envy as a small business owner because like we kind of did a rebrand and rebuild about we're going on maybe seven months ago and it's like everyone out the door, everyone in new. Like I know I know it sounds horrible, but like we're busy, we're making money, we're doing well. We could have kept driving, but I'm like, if I walk away or I'm taking a day off to do a podcast, like, is that what I want out there? Like it really hit home where I was like That's not what I want. And I found once I dialed that in, because I thought I was building a culture and I was being buddy buddy with employees and being nice. I'm like, we need structure that complements our culture. And after we did that, like it's just game changing. It's like everyone enjoys coming to work. It's been good. Have we had our banters? Yes, we have. But those are more pain points than they are struggles I'm finding. Right. But having those employees like have that independence, we kind of have the same thing here. You guys come in. Load up, mike, that's what you're doing today. It's on the board. Go do your thing. Reminds you of the quote, like a man that chases two buddies catches neither. Right. Because then like if someone's not dialed into their plan, they're this way, that way, that way, that way. And then they're not embracing the actual workforce and workplace with within, right? So I love how like you guys can do that. And I feel like you've moved up as GM in Morganville Precast. And one topic I don't talk about a lot is like entrepreneurs. It's like kind of connection between employees and the entrepreneur that started the business. I find every good business has like an entrepreneur, someone that like treats a business as their own. They're in the nitty-gritty of it. They don't have to take on like the financial burden or any risk like that. But like they almost emotionally do take it on personally. And I feel like your story in Orangeville Precast, I know if you can touch on it, is that you've kind of taken on that role just organically because you've been there so long, it's kinda like this is my home too. Yeah. Speaker 1: It's a great word. And and I mean, I'm in a family business. You know, my the the founder's wife still owns the company. She has forever. Yeah. ⁓ her her two kids I work with side by side every day. We all get along great. ⁓ but you can also, even though I like I've said and it's true, I love it there, you still you I almost get bored. Yeah. So every five or six years we'd we'd find something new, whether it was a new product, like we make this great retaining wall that you know, is kind of a local success manufacturing story. Like when manufacturing's, you know, sliding across the province, we're growing, right? Even though we're small, it's something we're proud about. Yeah. ⁓ you know, making putting in our own manufacturing facilities, things like that, things that we've done. We had a we had a big fire about twenty years ago, rebuilt stronger and better after that. It was terribly stressful at the time, but now it's fantastic. We have these great facilities, right? So so absolutely we don't stand still. Like we we don't we don't we're always trying to get better. You know, better processes, better Better equipment, trying to just keep moving forward, right? Trying to stay ahead of our com trying to stay ahead of our competition, not catch them. Speaker 2: And not as a direct owner of the company, but do you find yourself very involved in those projects or advancements or scaling processes? Speaker 1: Absolutely. And part of my the way that I manage that hands off management style is because that's the way the owners always treated me. Yeah. Right. If you think it's a great idea, sell it to me and we'll run with it. Yeah. And not a lot of no's, but we work her and I work well together and her and her kids too, because I'm the more aggressive one in there, the more measured. Yeah. So everything gets thought out very well. There's not a lot of snap decisions, right? We 'cause that's my d my decision making style is let's do it. Right. And they Let's think let's think about it, right? You know, let's think about it. So so it it can start out a workshop. Speaker 2: And when you started there, did you see growth in day one or were you just a kid? I was Speaker 1: A kid, man, cut screen bar and and ⁓ I I they put me out in a truck really early, like like a small truck, some bigger trucks, just doing whatever I had to do, you know. And then ⁓ I worked inside in the summers a little bit. The it's hard when you're a small. I mean, when I started there, they were growing really fast, like super fast. It's hard to plan, like when one person has done all the inside stuff for so long, it's hard to bring someone in and kind of figure out okay you're gonna do that. Like there's some trust issues there, right? Even though I was still in school and wasn't looking to take anyone's job. There's some there's some trust stuff that yeah has to happen. And so it took a while to kind of figure out roles. ⁓ but yeah I know I was just I was just a grunt when I started like just happy to you know load patio slabs well I was still going to school right it was great money in the summer like I could I had to pay for my own school. My parents couldn't pay for it. So you know paid for school. Right. Speaker 2: Patrick, was there so Yes. And what I love is that like you have this story where it's like loyalty isn't dead. You didn't pick hype over earn and this whole kind of like always looking at their lady in the red dress. Like I think so many more businesses would would thrive if people had that commitment to it. And like I know you said when you started, it was just a student making a paycheck, just doing what you're told to do and everything. But imagine how many businesses would be thriving if Every one of them had that student that stuck around from day one and ten years later, like, how involved they'd be in that business? Right. And as you scaled up, like what point, like, okay, you got your summer job to recap, started working there. They started rolling you into like the inside work, the office work, everything like that. What point did you veer off into the service clubs now? Or volunteering or whatever it is. You know what I Like that kind of Speaker 1: was so it was you know and it and I and I I want to talk about a little bit because my my chance to be manager was tragic, right? The owner passed away. And so his wife kept the company and asked me to take on that role. And I was still a young guy, but I thought, yeah, I can handle this, maybe a little cocky, right? Yeah. I can do this. Yeah, pull this and your hand. That's right. Yeah. ⁓ exactly. That's the words. And and so got at it pretty quick, but also realized and it's still the same. Like Orangeville's a small town, right? Y y I didn't know anybody. Couldn't find Shelburne without a map. ⁓ you know, but realized Speaker 2: Backstory, Shelburne is literally one street. Their business is on that road. Speaker 1: It's strange. And ⁓ but I realized pretty quickly that if I was gonna, you know, s stay in the in crowd, like get to know the our customers and get to know, you know, open doors, that I was gonna have to be involved in some of that stuff. And it was actually a customer. ⁓ Bert Goche is a still a friend of mine. He owns Dodds McNair Funeral Home and and he was a customer of ours. We used to make burial vaults. And ⁓ So I was in to see him one day at Christmas, you know, taking him in a ham and taking him all the business. And he had the four-way test up. And I said, Well, explain to me what that's about. And so we did. And then a week or two later he called me. He What are you doing Thursday night? And I said, Nothing. I was a bachelor. He Well, come on, I'll I'll buy you dinner. And I kind of thought he meant like, you know, we'll go to O'Toole's or something, right? Yeah. Dinner. And he took me to my first rotary meeting. ⁓ wow. And ⁓ it was pretty cool. There was a good speaker that night. And there was three or four of the guys came up and introduced themselves to me and kind of You know, you're gonna be coming back and and ⁓ so there's another customer or friend of mine that I knew, I knew his family at Doc Ulyss. He followed up a couple weeks later, Bert was busy because in the funeral business, you never know, like you've got to be there for your when your family needs you. And Doc called me up and said, Come on, let's go, let's go out again. So I I just kinda at the start, the first couple of months, I thought it was every other week. And I didn't find out till I was actually a member that it was every week. But you know, a bachelor that doesn't cook, that's one good meal a week. So I kept going to rotary. Speaker 2: Yeah, why not? Right. Yeah. It's amazing when you got in because like a lot of listeners won't know these names, right? But these are like renowned names in town. That's right. You know what I mean? And I'm like, like right off the hop, like these are the guys that brought you in. That's actually really cool because it's like me getting into these service clubs now, those are the names that I'm told were like the original like headhunters of a lot of these clubs and stuff like that. So like knowing you were in that group there, like that just makes the connection a little bit better. We know it's like That's really cool that you were like in that pocket because I find there's a pocket of like seven, eight people where it's kinda like you constantly hear the name. Like I was saying with you, it's like Doug O'Hartness, like you what I mean? It's kinda Speaker 1: And that's flattery and that's But yeah, it was it was neat. Like they were ⁓ you know, I went to school with a lot of their sons or daughters, right? So they so they knew me a little bit. I'd I'd been involved in student government in high school, so I'd been already doing a little a few things and they kind of knew me and you know, they liked it. I worked locally and said, Hey, come on out. So that's what happened. Speaker 2: And I g I feel like this one kinda teeter totters between I guess time committed, unpaid and your job. But do you believe in the whole like do more than you're paid for and be paid more for what you do? Speaker 1: I've lived it. Yeah. But but I didn't like Yeah. When I when I joined Rotary, they actually talked about like, you know, you're not here for business, right? You're here to serve. And and that was clear to me that it it wasn't meant to be a direct tie, but it absolutely was part of joining. Like the ⁓ Rotary when it started would only allow one profession of each. Like there was one lawyer, one doctor, one and so, you know, even though they don't talk about Speaker 2: Kind of white picked quote. Speaker 1: the business part of it, that's absolutely part of any service club is those connections that you're making. Speaker 2: Yeah, and I find it's almost indirect because like when I got into like I was in Highlands, right? I'm in D bot. And like as I'm getting into these clubs, I'm like, I'm not doing it to sell a service or product. That's right. It's it's like I just want to be in rooms of other people that are in my situation. Does that make sense? Like other business owners, other people that have the same problems as I do. Like if I just wanted to have a conversation, I would go to the local bar and just Speaker 1: Very subtle. Speaker 2: Pound beers and wings at at the actual bar. It's in talk to some Joe Blow there, right? But I want to be in rooms where it's like, these people get me. And when we do stuff, I'm I know it's gonna be at the same standard I'm doing it. So when we're planning something, it's like, okay, what's next? Let's do it. Okay, let's get something done. Like like di Diane's great, like diet. It's kind of one of those like, Are we even working on this? She's like, It's done. And like, this is my kind of people. But you know what I mean? It's like getting in those rooms. And I find the more you're in those rooms, organically you just become that person. You know what I mean? Like speaking for instance, right? Like any room we walk into, if you walk into that room, they're like, ⁓ he's a speaker. ⁓ he's the GM. Like people just know you as that person, right? Speaker 1: Yep. ⁓ and and absolutely it was great to be with like minded people. But also in my case, I was a young guy. So I was just a sponge, right? Yeah. Learning from it was mostly men then. Now our club is is over half women, which is fantastic. Yeah. ⁓ but I just learned, you know, like I said, how to do business, right? Not not I was always good at the the math part and the selling part and the and margins and stuff like that. But there's way more as you know, there's way more to a business. Yeah. Right. You can't just sit in your office and and Wait for people to come in, right? Or or you know, and these guys had been through it all, right? They've been through the wars and built hugely successful businesses, some of them. Right. And changed careers, like car dealers that became developers and and engineers that, you know, have one of the biggest firms in Ontario. Like it was are in c all of Canada. Like it's just fantastic to meet these guys. Speaker 2: And I love being in those rooms because you hear the impact they have with the ripple effect. Like I that's what I want to touch on because you just said that. It's like, how many high caliber jobs do they create by starting that business? And that rolls into the community, right? Like I know people in the community where like I know the owner of a larger business and they're like, ⁓ I'm, you know, the direct sales manager of that business. I'm like, You must make a good living. I go, because of my friend that has that business, you are making a good living and it's a good feeling. Yeah. It it is really cool seeing all the connect well, you know all the connections, especially in our town. Like everybody's connected, right? Yeah. And so the next thing I want to get into is like how you feel about small business. One, what do you love about it? And two, what do you feel like because you're connected to almost every small business in town? What do you feel a lot of small businesses are doing wrong right now? So like what do you love about it? But then what do you find as a repetitive thing where it's kind of like because you you have the experience behind it? Like, you it's kinda like, Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the things that we we we're always trying to get better on, and I mean not everybody does delivery, but trying to get our delivery service dialed in. Like I don't want to name any of the big companies, but we don't want someone to have to wait around from seven to five for a delivery truck to show up, right? ⁓ things like that. Callbacks. It's such a simple thing, right? Someone emails us, someone calls us, it could be about, you know, it we don't try to try to qualify our leads, right? Every, every Person that takes the time to send an email. It might be the stupidest $20 product, but they're getting a call back because they might refer to somebody else. These guys are great. They might have another job down the road that's bigger. So it's it's making sure. And I and that's one of the things that that I see that frustrates me. If I call into a place, take the time to call up and ask about a service, and they don't call back in a timely fa fashion. Now I'm I'm also very impatient. That's one of my bad traits, is I'm extremely impatient. Like, let's go. Yeah. And so if those callbacks are a little slower than maybe I expect, sometimes that's not a good thing. Speaker 2: Yeah, our business we've really embraced I know a lot of people are against it, but we really embraced automation, technology, AI and stuff. But I find our client retention, our approval rate, our reviews are a thousand times better. Like we have a process where like a homeowner calls me and they're like, Hey, I want to get a renovation done. I'm like, Okay, just text me your name, email address, and I got your phone number, right? I just plug it into the system. Right away, they get a form, fill out the form. An hour later, here's a calendar invite, schedule the calendar invite. Like We'll touch base with them in person right after, but like it's that immediate like I respect your time. I respect you wanting to hire us as a service. Sure, it's not me directly doing it, but like we've spent tens of thousands of dollars on the back end to make sure you're taken care of that way. And like I'm the same way because I have a lot of suppliers. And it's like, You gotta be kidding me. Like really, like after I've done X amount of sales with you over three years, like now I'm getting the button buttoned in the stick. I'm like, seriously, like you couldn't even pick up the phone or you couldn't shoot me a text back, like. You we got to the point where you came to me and said, Hey, yeah, don't worry about calling the office. We're cool. Just text and I'll get you what you need. Now that I'm texting you, I might as well just call the office. Yeah. So like I I agree with you with that pain point there. Like that's a huge thing, especially as you're building those relationships. And well, you've built a lot of relationships. And I'm sure a lot of people talk to you about either business or the service clubs or anything. So how do you like protect your time with that? Because I know you've taken time with me. We've gone out and had coffee and it's like I appreciate it because I I look up to you about things you've done in the community. And I'm like, for him to give me my time, I want to make sure I'm attentive of it. And I appreciate you coming on the podcast. But like at your like position, like between Orangeville Precast, Rotary, The Wolves, D bot, like, I'm sure people reach out to you. Like, how do you protect your time? Speaker 1: It's a difficult balance. One of the toughest ones you give me. There there's no easy answer, right? I I do insist on if I'm gonna do something outside of work, it's gotta be appointment based. Like it can't just be, Hey, let's go for lunch one day. Like it's like where are we going? What what kind of time can I expect? You know, and then I can then I can set it aside. I can work around that. You know, like like this morning I was in for a couple hours before I came here. Yeah. Those are set up for the drivers. They're good till I get back. Don't have to worry about any of that stuff. Cause this wasn't something where I'm gonna be sitting here and be able to take a call while we're talking on the podcast, right? So so those are the kind of things because I knew I was coming here, I could set up my day. And even though we know we're only here an hour or half an hour, an hour, I could set up my day around that time. Yeah. ⁓ but y sometimes you gotta say no and that's tough. ⁓ I Speaker 2: How long have you been saying no, though? Like I find everyone has this transition where they're like, and I'm just gonna say no. Like it was it's just like a hard line, and then all of they're like, Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the way I have some rules that I've set up for myself. Yeah. And and it's just a way that I've managed it. I'm I'm I'm my time at home with my kids, they're getting older. They don't want to hang around with me so much. But is I'll only be out without my family one night a week. Okay. Un unless there's exceptional circumstances, right? So, you know, I'll start looking at my schedule ahead of time and go, ⁓ there's two things that week. Which one am I gonna do? Right. And and that's one of the things I do. Not during the day. Speaker 2: Borrow time still. That's right during that transition. Yeah. Speaker 1: I try to hang out there as much as I can. Yeah. Right. Because I'm you know, my my company was great to me. I was off last year and got a couple of hips and had a lot of time off. And ⁓ we're great there between us trading off for a kid's sports. We all like we're a sports company. We love that, right? So I'm taking off to New Jersey for a couple of days next week to go watch my son play lacrosse. So things like that were good, but you know, like ⁓ vendors, a lot of suppliers like to stop it just stop in and I'm not real big on the pop in, you know. So whenever we get a new sales rep from a company, that's one of the things we talk about. You know, call me. Even if it's a half hour ahead and if I can see, I'll set some time aside. Right. But if you just show up, it's gonna be how you doing? We'll talk to you next time. Speaker 2: As you're like kind crossing paths. Yeah, like, who's this guy? ⁓ it's so and so from here. Okay, nice to meet you later. Like, yeah. No, I I'd get that. And I'm I'm starting to find that I'm at the point where it's like I have to say no to certain things. And at first I used to think I was being rude or arrogant, but now I'm like, no. If there there's like I set standards on everything, right? So like if I walk into the room, I would there's like a story I always joke about and like someone's like, You ask how your day how my day was? And I'm like, I don't care how your day was. Like, you know what I mean? It's not someone I talk to every day. It's not someone like I'm really close friends with or anything. I'm like, Hey, how's it going? Good. How's your day? ⁓ it's busy. And then they're like, you know, that's how my day is? I'm like, I don't care how your day is. Not trying to be rude, but like I generally don't care how your day is. It's not that I don't care about you. It's not that, you know, if something bad came up, I'm sure you would tell me. And like it th maybe that's a little extreme, but like I have someone call me and say, Hey, what are you doing tomorrow at lunch? Nothing. Or we're gonna do lunch? No. But you say you're not doing anything. I'm like Just because the time slots open doesn't mean you get it. Yeah. Like it's not like a first come, first serve kind of basis, right? Yeah. so like I've kind of built that standard around myself and like I'm starting to tell myself, yes, you can. Like you're allowed to do that. You can do that. Which brings me to the next quote, which is like, if you believe you can or you can't, you're right. The famous Henry Ford quote, right? So with that, I want to get into the story about the debate. The one where you last minute, you fumbled up. Speaker 1: Yeah, so Speaker 2: Because I feel like that was a position where it's like, Okay, I can do this. If I'm gonna do it, I'm just gonna do it. Screw it. Like send it. Speaker 1: Yeah. Hope for the best. I do I do a lot I did a lot of all candidates. I don't even know how I fell into the all candidates because and he had talked about saying no. ⁓ I said no to D bot for a long time. I did some committee work, but I just didn't want to be on their board. I was on enough boards. I didn't want to be on their board, didn't want to and once I fell into it, it was great. But somehow I started ⁓ moderating all their their all candidates' debates. So I got asked to do one, ⁓ Premier Eaves. I think this is the story you want. Premier Eaves was our Representative. That's it. Yeah. And ⁓ and so they asked me to do the T V debate, which I hadn't done a lot of T V, hadn't done a lot of stuff on camera. So I didn't know where to look, didn't know who to who to look at, who to talk to. Speaker 2: That's why I want to bring it up because every episode I want a little bit of impact in there and I'm have people that are listening that are like, I want to start putting myself out there more. I wanna start even if it's stupid stuff just posting on social media, right? Like you went straight to like TV. Yeah. Like you know what I mean? Yeah. But I want people to see like the outcome of like a Speaker 1: So they they they asked me to do it and it was at the at the Roger's office here in town and ⁓ I said, sure, you know, I'll whatever, I'll do it. And so there was like pre production meetings which I'd never dealt with before. Like usually I just show up and they tell me how much time there is for each question and carry on. And so we had these meetings ahead of time. Speaker 2: Explain what the debate was about. Speaker 1: ⁓ so it was it was the what the provincial all candidates. Speaker 2: Yeah. So it it wasn't a small town train. It was like Speaker 1: That's CBC had it live to tape. You know, it was it was the local debate, but CBC was picking up the feet. So a lot of people were gonna watch it. And ⁓ cell phones were in the early days then. So I'm I'm at home getting ready, you get my suit on, I get a phone call. ⁓ hey Doug, there's problem. I'm like, okay, what's the problem? And they're like, Well, there's there's protesters that inside the studio and they're not gonna let. And I'm like, Well, is everyone coming over to my house? Like, what are we gonna do here? How are we gonna pull this off? So we had to meet at ⁓ Ontario Hydro and Sea Line. They put us all in the back of a paddy wagon. So all the candidates, myself, Mr. Eaves, a couple of his supporters, ⁓ the camera guys, like everyone involved with this was in the back of a police paddy wagon and they drove us in. And we could hear the protesters banging on the walls on the outside as we're going into the cable studio. Like this is Orangeville. Things like that don't happen in Orangeville, right? We can hear this going on. So they take us in. So I was actually pretty calm. I was surprised up until then. And then I started getting nervous, like, what are we in for here? And it was a hot summer's day and they had the studio doors open ahead. We can hear these guys, good friends still yelling. And I'm like, this is gonna be no fun at all. ⁓ but I was fine. I kept going. About halfway through, I ⁓ messed up the speaking order live on live TV, right? Just completely botched it. And so behind the scenes, like I everyone can't see your podcast here, it's nice and calm, but behind the scenes, it's chaos because they all realize what I did. And I know what I did, but I can't like stop and say, Hey camera guy, what do I do now? Like I right, I had to had to figure it out. Ernie's scratching away wildly, and the other candidates are and I so I stopped and I said, I apologize. We've messed up the speaking order. We're gonna continue on from where we are now and we'll reset it with the next question. And then the whole thing just went, Everyone calm down. I admitted my mistake and we carried on. And so anytime I speak now, anytime I do all candidates. I don't worry 'cause I'm never gonna mess up as bad as I did that night, right? On live T V. It's never gonna be worse than that ever again. Speaker 2: And then looking back at it, you have one of those aha moments where it's like it wasn't even like I I'm sure it was a big deal, but it's one of those like no one died. And I I mean I just stepped back, right, reset the situation, they didn't cancel the debate. No. No one got taken away in in a pan. Well, I'm pr pretty sure you guys got taken away in a path. Speaker 1: We did. We backed up. Yeah. Yeah. I think we all went to the bar. Like everybody went to the bar after. ⁓ but you know, the the the we had two local newspapers then. They both had big long, you know, twenty five hundred word stories on the all candidates meeting, not a mention about the speaking order. It was all about the candidates, which is how it was supposed to be. But to me it was terrifying. Speaker 2: Yeah. And that's all you thought about. That's the that's what people a lot of people are like looking at is like, how much am I gonna mess up? Like, is everyone gonna notice? Is I've said it on other podcasts, it's like if you're gonna suck, suck at the beginning. I always look at it as like I I use a baseball analogy, right? Like you pay play peewee, you'll you know, you're only your kids only your family's watching you, right? Yeah. Get to high school, you know, maybe some girls are watching, you gotta play a little better. Get into college, okay, scouts there. We get to ⁓ O B, like that's when you don't suck. Beginning suck. No one cares. Like my podcast. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: I'm gonna be a hundred episodes in, say that's when I finally get a following, right? No one's gonna back to episode one. It's like your Instagram feed, like no one's gonna scroll to the bottom, like our attention span's not that long. So like if you're just starting out, just do it, suck, make your mistakes, make like do the reps and get over it. Yeah. Speaker 1: You've had a great plan today though. Like we've had some pretty good flow here, I think. Speaker 2: I'm interested. That th I think that's why, like honestly, like having a conversation with you and our other guests, like people I want to learn about, people I like aspire to be in their position, people that have done things I want to do. Like I think that's why the podcast has been so easy to do. Because it's like it's fun. No, there's no pressure. It's not like I have to make sure there's a thousand viewers to make sure I make revenue. Like there's six viewers, there's a hundred viewers, there's a five hundred viewers. I don't care. Speaker 1: Well my family will give you fifty. Yeah. Speaker 2: Well th a guy like this, like who knows in town town of our job is gonna watch, right? Like ⁓ Well speaking of the town, let's keep rolling with that. So I got D bot, which is a duffer from Board of Trade, I have Home Builders Association, we have the Rotary Club, we have the Wolves, who I just found out T Dog did some photography for, so that was kinda cool. He was here yesterday and he's like, they gotta do photography for no Speaker 1: No they've all heard enough of me. ⁓ Okay. Yeah, at their golf tournament, right? There, yeah. I heard it. Yeah. Speaker 2: So is there anyone on that list that I missed before we kind of dive into them? Speaker 1: No, I don't think so. No. There there could be. It might it might come to me as we're going at it. Speaker 2: So okay, so let's start with D bot. What is the like involvement in D bot right now? ⁓ Speaker 1: ⁓ so I'm past chair after I I was supposed to fill in temporarily. It ended up being a four year term. ⁓ but it it was great because the ⁓ Diana and Jamie Lane are so good at their jobs. Yeah. Right. It wasn't a very big time commitment and it didn't take a lot of evenings, which is when you were talking about saying, No, that's the thing for me. I protect that time with my family intently. And and there wasn't you know, during the day there was some emails and stuff, but Stuff you can just handle in the flow of a normal work day, right? Those those women are excellent at their jobs and just once in a while they need some direction or just need to bounce things off someone. Yeah. Right? So it was easy to do. ⁓ and and the organization is in good shape. You know, they've they've picked up ⁓ the assets of Duffer or of ⁓ Broadway engraving, which has been great for them. That's awesome, yeah. Yeah, they did. And your your company did a great job helping us get there because that it just Speaker 2: Basin looks phenomenal. And when we had no time. Yeah. Speaker 1: Together really yeah, really quickly for us. ⁓ and it's been a really good it's been a really good investment. So now instead of having to go to our members and saying, Look, we gotta raise fees a hundred bucks, we can just keep it where we're at and it keeps them busy. Speaker 2: So you leverage the members too to be try, you know, hopefully customers or clients or render or whatever it is, right? That's right. ⁓ home builders association, I think you were saying you're out now. Speaker 1: We're out. ⁓ I was I was president for a year, which wasn't a role that I aspired to. I really think that's a role that a builder should be president of the local home builders. ⁓ Speaker 2: Which I appreciate that on the podcast because I want people to see like you may not fit into certain areas either. Like you did it. Yeah. But it's good that you can openly admit saying it just didn't align with me. Yeah. Speaker 1: I I did it, it was fine. But but when I was when I was involved, there was a real strong battle with ⁓ some of the local municipalities over development charges and I was a good one to be leading then because I could cross that bridge into both realms to try to try to negotiate rather than, you know, take the sledge and beat people down. So we ended up getting a pretty good deal, but you know, it it's never never gonna win, they're always gonna increase. Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty much it. ⁓ next thing is rotary. So I think this is your longest running Speaker 1: Thirty two years now. Speaker 2: Where I got the thirty from, okay, don't make me feel bad in the media episode. I knew I saw thirty and like there's a lot of information. Speaker 1: I'm just kidding ya. ⁓ yeah, thirty two years of rotarian coming up start just started my second term as president. Okay. ⁓ and I I just love it. Like Ribfest is awesome. Yeah. You know, it's just a it's it's a huge amount of work, our folks behind the scenes. And, you know, I do a small part of Ribfest compared to some of the stuff that some of our members do to get us to that point in a couple of weeks is just phenomenal what goes on behind the scenes. Speaker 2: It is a massive event too. Like there's tens of thousands of people. Like it's crazy. Yeah. If you if if you live in the area, like not even just in Orangeville, in the area. Like and you go to Ripfest, you'll run into fifty people you know. Like everyone goes to Ripfest. Unfortunately, a few years I've missed because we're big on camping, right? So we have the toe behind trailer and we're always gone that weekend. Yeah. Part of the reason why I picked Highland over Rotary is I heard you had to be available for that weekend. I'm like, Well, that's not fair if all the bizarre and I I'm not. Like so I would end up going with the Highland Rotary. ⁓ But like what have you been your roles in those ⁓ different stages through Rotary? Because you there like from the beginning. So I'm assuming like when you were there, was this still the day where like the men met and the women so Speaker 1: what no met separately. You were women when I started, but it was it was with us. It's before I started they were called Rotary Ans. Okay. So our but our club ⁓ actually this ⁓ next April is going to celebrate our 90th anniversary so thanks for asking that because it's fantastic. But no there were women in our club but our club has grown like we're like I said, we're half now women. It's fantastic. Yeah. my role through then like you know we're Speaker 2: But they meant separate. ⁓ ⁓ that's what it was. Speaker 1: The first time around I kind of worked through all the different director spots and secretary and treasurer and then became president. This time around it was more and I don't want to be on the board, but when you need me, I'll be there. So they asked and I and I said I would do it again, right? So it's a a little bit of a shorter commitment. ⁓ Ribfest has grown from I don't know, we had ten or twelve thousand people through the first year. Now we get like twenty five thousand. Yeah. And then great funds that go back into the community. So yeah. Speaker 2: That's awesome. Yeah. So that's your longest standing club. Do you see yourself consistently or just with it at all? I Speaker 1: I I don't see how I would ever leave. Like I just don't I don't see that that door's not there. Like I I don't know, maybe when I retire from work and I'm not driving to Orangeville every day, maybe I won't wanna come back on Tuesday night to go to rotary but Speaker 2: And that's cycling back to the feeling like we were talking about the beginning epis episode. It's like you can't explain that feeling. Just kinda like it's just natural. Like I don't see myself not doing it. I don't see myself not being involved. I don't see myself not helping out or committing to something like that. And then last I want to save was the wolf. So like So the Wolf now I want to dive into some detail because that one's really cool. Like like there's a huge story behind that. All right. So ⁓ Speaker 1: passion play for me. ⁓ I was really heavily involved for 17 years and I still kind of help out where I can now. ⁓ some other folks have taken over, you know, kind of my GM role. And it was it was founded by a a man named Dan Stone and I came along in year two. ⁓ and just thought it was awesome. It's how I met my wife ⁓ it's just a real strong grassroots organization. It has remained that way. ⁓ it's a hockey team for developmental aid challenge athletes. So there's a lot of autistic players, Downs players. There's a lot of different, you know, there's there's people that have had brain injuries from car accidents and and they just all fit together and it gives them a place to belong and gives us a place to belong. I mean, they bring us in. It's not it's not like we're doing it for them, we're doing it to them. We're part of the team and it's awesome. ⁓ there's travel every year to a tournament. Every other year is an international tournament. So With the Wolves. I went to London, England and Washington twice and Boston and Detroit, Virginia. ⁓ a lot of tournaments in different places in Canada. ⁓ we planned a trip out to Kelowna I had to miss because of my my son was born. I wasn't gonna miss that. But yeah. And ⁓ you know, they're they're looking at going to the East Coast now. It's it's just it's phenomenal. It's just a great group. Speaker 2: And that's what I want to say about one for last because I feel like certain clubs and involvement bring you like purpose and then other ones bring you connection. That's And I feel like the Wolves one is a connection one and the other one has I I know there's connections in stuff like Rotary, but there's a purpose behind it. We're gonna raise funds for the town and we're gonna just, you know, give up our time and our efforts and organization to provide for something. But I feel like there's also like the wolves who have like physical connection, right? Speaker 1: Right. Like it and and there was two the two big things the Wolves did when I was there was the trip to England. And I remember when we were like they so the international tournament moves around and when they decided to hold it in England, it was a little bit controversial in our hockey community because a lot of clubs said we can't afford to go there. We said, Well, that's fine, but it's not fair that they fly over, these three teams in England fly over every year to the tournament in North America, right? So we gotta try to give back. So we as our as our board, we talked about it, and even in our board it was a little bit was little bit of conflict which was pretty rare. It's like, how are we gonna come up with this money? And I'm like, We'll do it. And the community came out in space. Like the Lions made huge donations and Rotary made huge donations and the business community supported us and it was really easy, honestly. Like we put it together and in no problem. That was in two thousand six. And then in two thousand and ten we decided to host the international tournament. And everyone thought we were nuts because it hadn't been done in a small town in twenty years because it had grown so much. And that we said, No, we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it here. We're gonna do it great. And it was at that point the biggest one there'd been, there was almost nine hundred athletes ⁓ for the banquet dinner on the Saturday night. We had sixteen hundred people out at the fairgrounds. That's crazy. And ⁓ it was just it was an awesome event. It brought the community together. Like if you lived in Orangeville, if you were in Orangeville that weekend, you knew what was going on. You were going to watch hockey, even if you've never watched a special game before. That growth is huge. Speaker 2: With all the experience in involvement with like wolves and stuff like that, do you find a decline in community volunteering and involvement recently or lately? Speaker 1: COVID smacked it. Yeah. I mean Speaker 2: But even like a younger generation, do you feel as ⁓ like when you were getting in there, do you feel as many eighteen to twenty five year olds were getting involved then as they are now? Speaker 1: In our club specifically, there's more than when I joined. Like we have five or six members now under thirty. And when I joined, I was the only one. ⁓ people have to ask them, right? You know, people have to be asked to go. People aren't gonna go find it. They're if you know, and one of the things we're we're talking about at our our rotary club does a I won't keep going back and forth, but our rotary club does an event called Rylight and it's it's Rotary Youth Leadership. ⁓ used to be called award, I forget the A, but it's like a Speaker 2: Well that's That's right. Speaker 1: business development for young people out at the ecology retreat center and youth come around from all over this part of southern Ontario. The last two years the student we've sent has joined our club right after. ⁓ wow. ⁓ and so ⁓ one of the things we're talking about with Ribfest is we talk to a lot of people like you. We'll talk to these guys at Ribfest, you and and they'll ask about Rotary. And we're not doing a good job at Ribfest of getting those folks out into our cloud. So that's one of the things we're going to keep working on. ⁓ the wolves have had no problem getting volunteers. Get parents volunteer, other people. It's they're they're the unicorn. Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome. So a few small questions here. Like, what do you find individuals who volunteer, get involved in community, help out? Like if you're gonna talk to someone right now and say like and someone's like, I kinda wanna get involved, like tell them what they'll get out of it. Like what what's your perspective of getting out of it? Speaker 1: You get life. if I just went home and, you know, sat in the backyard and had a beer every night, well, my kids are going to do the same thing when they're older, right? That's I'm busy. Awesome. I'm busy. I I I follow my kids around at every sporting event. Sometimes I'm involved as a coach or a manager or a trainer. Last night at my house, there was no one home. So from after school till nine o'clock last night, there was no one home. We were all out. Speaker 2: That's awesome. Speaker 1: Yeah. Doing different things, right? And and and then so tonight we're all out again. And then Friday night we're all doing stuff together. Yeah. And and that's the way my kids are gonna remember their youth is is out sports with mom and dad and theater with mom and dad and doing things with mom and dad. And I hope they do the same thing, right? Because just going to work and coming home and having a beer, that's kinda boring. Speaker 2: I I love that because like the reason I wrote like the book, for instance, right? Is because my mom passed away young, my dad wasn't around, both my grandparents are gone, didn't talk to my dad's parents. And I went to go look for a picture or something. I'm like, I don't have pictures of my family. I'm like, there's no effing way my kids are gonna grow up like that. Like I'm gonna leave my fingerprint on the world and get involved. I'm gonna write my book. I mean, dude and it's like something tangible. You know what I mean? like they're gonna look at that and say, Okay, my dad was involved in this, this, this, and this. And my dad wrote a book. And my dad had a podcast. Like it's like, I'm not doing it for me. Like, I am doing it for me because I do like being involved, but there's a subconscious reason behind it. And I love how you brought that up because like it matters. Yeah. It really does. Three quick questions now. One, what does Doug want to be asked? If you got to sit down with an idle top interviewer in the world. Five minutes of fame on TV, like what's one question you want to be asked so you can give the answer you wanna give? Speaker 1: So I've only been asked that question once before. I I was I was I was lucky enough ⁓ John Torre, who's my political hero, was our representative. And the first time I met him, I sat across a small table from him like this. And he said, You're me and you can fix the province of Ontario, what would you do? And I just sat there and looked at him. Like, really? ⁓ you know, and and I and I've been asked about You know, if if you could go back in time and and spend time with any person alive or dead and have a conversation, I would say I'd want to talk to my mom, you know, more time with my mom. That's what I would want. ⁓ I just I don't have that vision for the world, only my own little world. Yeah. You know, and and so the question would have to be about that and it would just be more time. Right? More time. I want more time with my kids and my family and and my friends and work. And I just it all seems to g especially as I'm getting older. You know, I was joking about the thirty years, but as I'm getting older, it's going by faster and faster. I wanted to slow down. I don't want to stop doing things. I just want time to do more. Speaker 2: I can appreciate that. And like I I'm at the point where I I'm trying to go full speed. Like there are days I'm tired and stuff, but like I'm sorry to think about that. My kids my son's going to university in two years. Like my daughter's in grade nine, going out in grade ten. I'm like, I'm on board with time. Like I gotta like put something out there. I gotta accomplish something, but I also gotta split my time and make sure it's protected when I'm with my family. Like even now, like my kids go out at night. They're like, Dad, can you pick me I'm like, Yes, a hundred percent. I will pick you up. 'Cause I don't know when the last time I'm gonna be able to pick you up is. Yeah. That's right. ⁓ Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: So what's next? So two more questions. One is what's next for Doug? Like is there a plan or are you just gonna keep rolling with momentum? Just you're at the point where you're like Speaker 1: I'm I'm trying to l I I enjoyed it. I joked about it. Our friend Diana gave me a hard time because I somewhere I wrote or said that after Rotary I don't want to lead anything again for a while. And it's not like I want to stop. But my kids, the next phase of their life is changing and I want time for that. Right. And I and I and I you know, our sons go to university. I'm this is gonna be the only dad brag I'm gonna do on here, but he found out last night that he made Team Ontario look cross. I'm not missing a game. If he's still playing the Crossing University, I'm not missing a game. Whether it's here in the States, I'm going everyone. So I'm trying to make sure that I'm not letting people down when that time comes because that's where I want to be. Speaker 2: It's so awesome that you're at that stage and you acknowledge that, right? Because so many people get caught up in the hustle and bustle and it's one of those like like it's gone already, right? Last question, and I love this question, it's always my favorite. What would you name this episode? Speaker 1: Hm. ⁓ thoughts about life. Speaker 2: Oscillate life. I like that. T Dog, write that down. ⁓ yeah, yeah. So one, I appreciate you coming on. Two, hopefully we covered everything that you wanted to cover or at least touch base on it. I don't know if we missed any Speaker 1: ⁓ this was great. I I didn't know where it was gonna go. So it's it's gone by really fast. Speaker 2: Yeah. ⁓ yeah, and honestly, I appreciate you coming on. If anyone wants to get in touch with Doug, we'll have some socials or contact info. I don't know if you want any of that. If you need a speaker for an event, he's phenomenal. ⁓ I don't know if he wants to, you know, he might be traveling around watching Ontario lacrosse, but again, this episode kind of touched home for me because I love community involvement. I love giving up time, bringing impact, servicing for a purpose. I'm just at that stage in life, and Doug has done that 10 times over. You've heard everything he's been involved in, the experiences he had, connections he's made, and like I'm thriving for that. So it was great sitting down with them. Another episode of Forget the Noise podcast. Make sure you tune in to next week and the week after. We have a lot more cool guests ⁓ coming up. Besides that, I guess I'm just signing off. Thank you again, Doug. Thanks, man. This was great. Awesome. Speaker 1: Yeah.