an egregious injury

Collin has deep tones of congestion. Brandon visited Oz! And we discuss brain drain.

  • Deep tones of congestion

  • Brandon’s egregious injury

  • Has scoured he cabinets!

  • Secret discoveries!

  • The school musical! Wizard of Oz!

  • Not even biased a little 

  • Are you an entrepreneur?

  • Brain drain?

  • Collin’s Haiku:

    • Model trains chug by, 

    • Child's eyes wide with delight

    • New hobby takes flight.

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

good, work, business, degree, weird, gen z, move, entrepreneurship, understand, idea, person, left, entrepreneur, talking, people, semester, big, run, started, adds

SPEAKERS

Brandon, Collin

Collin  00:04

Welcome to Oh, brother, a podcast of three brothers trying to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon, Colin, and Aaron. On this week's show, and egregious injury, oh, boy,

Brandon  00:19

oh boy,

Collin Funkhouser  00:21

oh boy and a half your things are more humbling than when you go to the obvious place where you left something and it is obviously not there anymore. Oh,

Brandon  00:30

I always find the it's very humbling when you go to the one place, the last place you've worked, which is the most obvious and it's sitting

00:38

right there waiting for you. Like,

Brandon  00:40

no, no, my mind was my was my horse. That's where it is right where I left it.

Collin Funkhouser  00:46

I went I went to the place which was right where I left it. And I was like, Oh, that's not it's not there. And then you have to think of like the second most obvious place and you're like, Nope, I'm I have no idea. I'm completely clueless. And then you start your friend frantic search to volunteer. They're

Brandon  01:03

glad that you had to search it down. And where was it was there's Colin lost his water?

01:12

I did. I did. I

Brandon  01:14

had this text five, like five minutes ago. Like, Yeah, hold on. I can't find

01:20

i which is such an old man thing to say. I would have sworn

Brandon  01:23

or your dad was in the microwave. No, I

Collin Funkhouser  01:25

did not migrate my water. I would have paid good money that it was upstairs on my dresser. Right. So I went oh, gotta run up here got my water. That's not there. And I was like, well, but like, I didn't I bring it upstairs. Then I went into the bathroom because maybe I sit next to nope, sat next to the sink then. I was like, I went downstairs and it wasn't next to the couch. And it wasn't in that bathroom. Oh, it's next to the sink in the kitchen. Ah,

Brandon  01:51

of course. You are in the middle of refilling it and then you know, these things happen? Yes. Anyway,

Collin Funkhouser  02:07

so that was that was my adventure today.

Brandon  02:11

What a exciting adventure.

Collin Funkhouser  02:19

And I'm also slightly losing my voice. So I am very sorry if I

Brandon  02:25

needed to clear it. You're yelling at dogs and children too much today. Are you? Ah, no. Here or is it that surprise? 80 degree November day that? No, DAG is this. Think that

02:39

was part of it? No. So I spent yesterday and today in the remote location in doing interviews, so I was doing lots of in person interviews, which is lots of talking however, the previous prior two days before that I had this like kind of chronic headache that wasn't going away. Oh,

02:59

that's not great. And

03:03

I was like, Oh, this is weird. And it's funny. You should mention the 80 degree weather because I was sitting yesterday in a in a coffee shop wearing a hoodie long pants in my close toed shoes. And all of a sudden I shivered

Brandon  03:19

Oh, I went and went Hmm. Well, this is unfortunate.

03:26

And yeah, over the course of over the course of yesterday, I slowly like deteriorated. To the point where like I was nauseous. My throat was on fire. I had a raging headache. I was coughing, and I just felt like very unwell. And it wasn't like, but I still felt okay enough to like, I was still thinking and writing things and doing stuff. But it was like I was I'm not gonna say very unwell but it was that weird like, I was at 80% and the rest was I felt like crap and I was just in a fog

Collin Funkhouser  04:02

and it was very unpleasant so much so that at 430 I was lying in bed yesterday.

04:09

Wow. What a fun time this is me.

04:11

Yes, yes. And then I woke up this morning and I felt I felt that about like 95% And so that's been fine. That was my fun adventure yesterday

Brandon  04:22

I mean that's it's a good turnaround. I like this this is nice turnaround. I like that a lot. Oh man.

04:36

That was that was my that was actually that was my

04:38

actual adventure of feeling. Feeling like garbage. Well, hello Ray why? Ah.

04:52

So I get the sick, deep tones of congestion I guess. Oh, well this was you always wanted, right? Hello.

05:08

Oh, goodness. Goodness. So, yeah,

05:12

that's, that's that's a flash update. I don't know what's been brewing with you.

Brandon  05:22

Let's see. Well, I will start with the egregious injury that I have sustained. Here. This is where? Yes. Okay, so wait for this story. This is great fun. Okay. I was I was we were talking about like, faults and folding in class, right. So we started an earthquake unit for science, right? So we've talked, well, the earthquake section of geology, rather, I should say. So talking about that we've got first we talk about, like, what happens when the tectonic plates move at a normal pace? Right. So like, we have folded layers, and we have faulting and the different types of fault movement and all this kind of stuff, right? And then and then we build that into, okay, so what now what happens when the Earth, the tectonic plates and defaults move? Fast? Right, that's the great part, right? So I was doing a demonstration about folding and like, kind of what it looks like. So I had, I took my carpet squares, and took like four carpet squares. And I set them on top of each other. And I pushed the edges together. Right? Because then you can see all of the layers, bending and moving together, right? Like that. Right? So it's a good visual, right. And so, one of the classes I had it sitting on my podium, right? And I don't know why I did this, but the on the other ones, I had it sitting on a desk in the front, because there was a person not there, right? So I put it on the desk, and then I have a carpet square. Okay. And I put my palms on the park carpet square with my fingers on top, and I put them together. Right? It makes sense. Yes.

07:19

So far, there's no possible way you could injure yourself doing any times

Brandon  07:21

when I did it on my podium, the because of the way I was standing and how high it was. I had my hands inverted. I had my fingers under

07:33

the carpet squares with my palms on the top right. I was like, I had them. I was holding them.

Brandon  07:42

Like I started putting them together. And like they I don't know if it was like caught on something or caught on the edge of my podium. I don't know what happened but like they're caught there and why shove them together. My fingers raked across the hinges on the top of my podium because it has little top thing that opens up. So you raked my fingers, one finger on each hand, just right across the edge of that hinge. And so my right hand, just like nicked it a little bit, right, but my, my left hand, good gravy.

08:24

It's right. At my cuticle is where I hit the hinge. Right. And so this hinge or scraped

Brandon  08:33

across, like perpendicularly across my finger, like right at my cuticle. And so on my on my right hand, it's just like it poked it a little bit and then it like slid off. But the way that my left hand was positioned, it just dug and just ripped a huge, it's like bruised like it hurt so bad. I was very proud of myself because I did that in middle class. And that I just kind of stopped and went, Man That hurts. And then I flipped the slide is like okay, you guys need to go write this down. I'm going to be right back. Because, right, I'm bleeding profusely. My gosh. I went to the bathroom and I wanted to have band aids in my room right? Or the children get injured. So I finished myself up. And then later on recess I went down to the nurse was like, hey, because it was like it. I mean, it's like ripped my cuticle thing. I'm sure so bad. It's like it's bleeding through my bandaid, right? It's like a slow because every time you move it like, Oh, it's so mobile that every time you move it like won't seal, right. He like wants to escape. So I went down and I was like the nurse the nurses were like What do you agents like, I need help. I have injured myself doing science. And I told them what I did and they both went, ah, what? No, that's

10:10

excellent. We never. We never the school nurses are like, oh god.

Brandon  10:16

I was like so I have come for a new band aids and some antiseptic cream that I thought that would be a good idea. And she was like, Yes, sit down. Don't move. Even they took pity upon my EDC and they wouldn't even let me apply my own bandages. She was like coming here.

10:38

You've done enough damage already. Yeah, like if

Brandon  10:41

you don't please not trustworthy. They bandage me as I've been walking around all day, band aids on both. I had to go I went to go give Susan a paper. She was in the library. And I walked in. And she goes Hi. What did you do is like What? What? Listen, it's fine. I had some they are you know, why are you broken? Yeah, they were laughing at my misfortune. But holy cannoli. That hurt real bad. I don't know how. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I took the bandage off a little while ago. I had it on again at school today. And the one of my, my right hand is like fine. My left hip. It's right on my index finger and my left hand just like it's like shredded.

11:32

Yeah. That's No, that's no good.

Brandon  11:35

And weirdly, the other confusing part, I guess. I don't know how my hands are positioned. But it's my middle finger on my right hand and my index finger on my left hand. So I guess it was just that I don't know. I don't really know what happened. But that that's a weird. That's just weird. But yeah, that was my big assignment for yesterday. Tried to rip my own finger. Boy sure is something else. Tell you that? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So that's fun. That's okay. So fun

12:12

healing from that and what a terrible injury

Brandon  12:14

that's Yeah, it's really not pleasant. Right. It's really not very it's like the most annoying spot I mean, it was even like I was like bending my finger like last night before I went to bed and start like bleeding again. Your the way

Collin Funkhouser  12:30

I thought you were headed with this conversation was I thought it was going to be like one of those old man injuries of like, while I was bending down to tie my shoe and sneezed and I like busted rib or something. That's why I thought you were going with this with like you had just like you had done something with your shoulder because you're putting things together. But you This is this. No, this is a truly horrific injury. I

Brandon  12:50

rip my finger off on a hinge. That's fun. Okay, well, that's nightmare

12:59

fuel. Yeah,

Brandon  13:00

it was sure. Yeah, they go. They love that. Yeah, thanks.

13:04

I appreciate that. So so much. I can't tell you. How much the mean.

Brandon  13:11

Oh, my gosh. Oh, yeah. So did that. Still getting ready for the Karneval

13:17

Oh, yeah. Where? Where? How have things or have they gotten knocked out any further? Well,

Brandon  13:26

yeah, so I I've I scoured my cabinets, and I have enough beakers and things to play. Ping pong. skee ball with lab equipment. I think it's what we're gonna do.

13:40

Like Mad, Mad, Mad Scientist II ball?

Brandon  13:43

Yeah, it's a bit Oh, I like that. Yeah, they have a good name for it. So I just call it skee ball, even though it's like not really scalable, because they're like, it needs a name like it, you

13:52

know, a game that I made up right now. I know. I'm coming up with this stuff as I go. Oh, man, give me a break. So

Brandon  14:05

right, but yeah, so it's that's coming I have all this stuff. And so they we got some candy the other day for prizes. So who a lot of you good. I'm gonna test it out tomorrow. gonna set up some stuff during my planning time. Test it out a little bit. See how it goes? Probably have the kids help me test it out. I can't fellas tower test it out because they don't have anything jumping in. Okay,

14:31

there we go down. Like

Brandon  14:32

they gotta do stuff. They don't have to do such tomorrow. Because I also had, like, stopped doing my thing today. Right? And like, whatever. And then the head maintenance guy shows up and he goes, Hey, this guy was here today. And I wanted I talked to him before already, right? He's a archaeologist. Oh, that guy. Yeah, archaeologist guy came. And so I'd already had one class and he's like he was already here, because he had talked to like the fourth grade about some stuff. And he was like, he wanted to know if he could just come talk to your class. And it's like, well, yeah, I guess so. i He's good to have one of the groups is gonna miss him. So that's not ideal. But yeah. I don't have to call him later. So they'll just come today, right? It'll just come to you. So he had a bunch of stuff for them. So that's cool. So I talked a little bit about insurance and like, yeah, he's got like, an extremely extensive arrowhead. Yeah. tool collection. Right. He was just like, had been on a dig this weekend. You know? How does that happen? As what happened?

15:50

How is he going on these digs? What does he do for this stuff?

Brandon  15:54

He was actually doing he was he's, he knows some dudes. Right? He was hooked up with some people they were working. Like with, like, Cahokia stuff.

16:07

Right? Yeah. Okay. Okay. I don't know how much I should

Brandon  16:09

say. Cuz they like Sure. discovered new things this weekend. I think you've said enough. Yeah. Like they made, like some post Cahokia discoveries. Right at undisclosed location that I will send sir, for purposes because they haven't, you know, literally, he said they found it like two days ago. So we're not gonna we're not gonna blow that. But he made some jokes. He told the kids, so I'll tell you. I want to help. Were No, keep that No, no, no. Are the so spoilers. It was not in Cahokia. So Kochia mound culture, right. Early early. He had a timeline. I couldn't see it. But in timeline, because he had shown that he was not like, he wouldn't show it to me. Like I couldn't see. Oh, wow, this is cool. Yes. So as not my area of expertise, right. But we do have Cahokia mound culture in the Midwest, right? Like a big trading center in my was now Illinois. Right? So basically St. Louis. Yes. But just the Illinois side. Yeah. Okay. It's not an accident that the French were like, yes. Here is where we shall build a city on the river. Right? Not really an accident. Right? There was already one there, kind of from from the natives, right? Sure. But big, big cultural hub, like big trading Expo from like, you know, a lots of the region here was very, like literal Crossroads at this time. Great. Until after they left there. It's kind of like, where there's like this big mystery in archaeology, like, where did they go? Right, like, the other one is like, why did they go? Right? Could be like, drought, or, you know, how do you know that Mississippi moves around and does weird things, right? Drought or maybe too much flooding? Because you know, that's also a Mississippi River thing. To do that, yes. So it does that. And so they left, and there's not a lot of evidence of where they have gone. And so he was out on a dig. And this last weekend, and they found several artifacts that point to like, post hookie in settlements, in other places, but like with similar cultural artifacts and stuff, right, so I will text you the undisclosed location. Ah, yeah. So you don't like have to wait. It's just spins. But yeah, that's, uh, he so he came today. He showed the kids when stuff is free. Cool. This is Michael. Yeah. But, uh, we got a little sidetracked. Are there things but

19:07

no, well, I mean, if there's something to be sidetracked about, it would be something cool like that.

Brandon  19:12

Yeah. So it fits in a little bit. It's not like exactly the same, right? Because we don't do like that kind of stuff. Right. But we can tie it to other things, right. Because we talked about like rock layers and like soil layers and yeah, that that's of crossover. We will talk later about like rocks and like, rock composition and their uses and things like that. And so that will go and he had some like stuff and he had the like, he was talking about like how fast this trade network was and like, you know, he said you can actually find like, not common, but you can find he said there's only like 20 Some pieces found was like you can't find obsidian arrowhead adds in spirit points and stuff in Missouri. Right? Really? Yeah. Again, not common. Is that only only like 20? Some have been found, like ever. Right. But again, this, these obsidian pieces come from Mexico. Right, because that's where the volcanic activity is. And that is that was the trade network. Right? It was good with that. That far. Right? A lot of this stuff was that far away. And they found evidence on both sides of that, that they were traveling back and forth. You know, because they find like, they find like Flint pieces and weird stuff in Mexico. And that's not where that comes from. Right. It's like Missouri. Flint. There, you know. Wow. So they have these kind of eked out trade network things. But he was talking about that. And so I was like, oh, yeah, hold on. It's I just whipped out the I was like, I have some normal Obsidium. He goes, what? Like, yeah, don't worry about it. But I just ripped, pulled out. And I was like, here. Yeah, here's what it starts out. Like, and then that's what it turns into. And the kids and that was cool that they could see a little

21:12

bit about that though. Yeah. Oh, that's super cool. Yeah. Enjoyed it. So that's fun. But yeah, that was the other thing I just say, had random.

Brandon  21:23

Archaeologists just wandering

21:24

around the hallway.

Brandon  21:28

Just, uh, you know, one of those normal days. Yeah. normal day, is finding finding archaeologists roaming the halls as a new class. So yeah. That was the other thing we did today. That was cool. For you. And then let's see. Other things. Other things? Oh, over the weekend. I mentioned this last time. We went to the school musical. Oh, yes. It was musical time. Nice. Going to go see that. It was really good. They did the Wizard of

22:08

Oz. Wow. So that was actually it was actually pretty cool. They did a really good job to set people. The set department did a really did a good job this time. Right. Lots of cool stuff. Yeah, that's a cool.

Brandon  22:25

Like, not because I had a 20 was not like super big. And again, they like built it. And they were, you know, whole thing is kind of disappointment. Because they're like, oh, yeah, we're gonna build an auditorium. And then you go in there and you go. Oh, yeah. You remember, never

22:43

seen the initial reviews of these? Yeah, I

Brandon  22:46

have to say a long time ago, listeners, you a longtime listeners will have heard this. But if you're new here, this is basically there was like, we're gonna build an auditorium. And then they had the big unveiling. And I went in there. And I said, you've never seen an auditorium. Have you ever designed this? Like I was? Like, there's not a lot of stage space. There's like, not any backstage is weird, right? Yeah, the whole thing. And if that's the whole point, like, why would you do that? Like, I don't know. But they did a good job of using their space. So they like really did a song Cook has like, in our thing, there's like this huge area, where like what you would traditionally call the pit, right? Uh huh. It's massive. It's like 10s of feet across gates down. So they just like, we're like, okay, and they just that they just used all of that space for some of the stuff, right? Oh, no, they had the, like, some stage risers off to the side to like, build a little extra on to the stage to bring it down and stuff. So they didn't really, they use their space really interesting ways.

23:54

Which was cool. So it was really neat in the design a bunch of cool stuff. And yeah, it was fun. It was really

Brandon  24:03

fun. A lot of kids there are a lot of former kids now in high school doing musically things.

24:07

So it was fun to see them. And yeah, so my view of the production of The Wizard of Oz. Pretty good. I've never seen I don't think the musical version of The Wizard of Oz. Ah, right. Yeah,

Brandon  24:26

it was I believe our high school did it once and I we were going to go watch it, but they were like sold out. Like they told that ticket so we couldn't go see. Like when I was like,

24:36

seventh or eighth grade. Uh huh. I almost saw the Wizard of Oz once a long time ago.

Brandon  24:43

Wow. Really sounds Yeah. Or we're gonna go and like but they didn't have any tickets. They like sold out of the tickets for the thing. That's really weird.

24:52

I don't know. But so we Yeah, so I've never seen the stage version of wizard

Brandon  24:59

or HD At any stage version of The Wizard of Oz, so it was pretty interesting to see how it translates to,

25:05

from screen to stage. Right? Yeah, it's overall very similar. There's some weird things. Like there's no flying monkeys and his version, and how there's like some weird, Jitterbug things that make you dance?

Brandon  25:26

I don't know. I don't know if that's in all the verbs. I don't know. That was weird. And there's like some other parts of just like art in there. Because

25:37

either we cut them, because we didn't, you know, for runtime sake. Yeah. Or they're just not there. In

Brandon  25:45

general, or runtime sank or just for adaptation. Like it's, some things just don't translate across mediums. Or so you're just like, oh, I don't need that part. Here. We don't need to do. Like, there wasn't a lot of introduction about like, the other movie, they have the whole big, like long drawn out opening thing where it's like, oh, you can see all her uncles and stuff and then like, they're going to be the same people are like the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and the right weird neighbor lady is the way that none of that stuff was in there.

26:18

Which is fine, because like, that's not hypercritical to the story. Right? There's so

Brandon  26:29

there wasn't. So that stuff wasn't there. Some like random scenes weren't in there. We can't help. A huge deal. They did have the Munchkins played by like elementary kids, which is kind of funny. Right? So like, third and fourth graders being the most super cute. Yes. The climax one of the club epic climax scene was funny too, because they did it. Like, it wasn't a thing where like, the Witch got wet. And then she melted. Right? Oh, it was like a It was It wasn't that she was she was trying to give Dorothy like a shrinking potion. like Alice in Wonderland style. Right to like, shrink her down. So as you could capture her or something? I don't know. See? Okay, but then within the witch got knocked into the pot. Right? The kettle, if you will. And so she ran screaming off the side of the stage. Right? And then they put the hat on one of the kids and then she ran across to the other side. Right and then put it in they switch hats to like one of the smaller kids. And then she ran back across. Okay, that's hilarious. That is a visual gag was hysterical, right. It's amazing. Yes, but they were just going like, ah, and like running back and forth. And every time they came on stage, they were littler. Because they were just waiting to like a black thing, right? Oh, sure. Put it on him. And then they just wrecked. So it was really that was like the best part of the whole thing.

28:14

Now see that kind of thing that works really well in that setting? For sure. Like that's, yeah, well, that's, that's, that's really adorable.

Brandon  28:23

Yeah, it was so funny. And so they just were like, that was my favorite part. Like just that visual gag of like the witch running across but like being a smaller person every time was really hysterical. Bravo. I owe to whoever came up with that. I don't know if that's in the script or if that was the theatre department but good job there because that's funny. Yes. Yeah, you

28:47

can use a space guy you can't have somebody shrinking in front of you right? Yeah hard to pull off in this

Brandon  28:56

rubric Mirantis as previously discussed Yeah, so that was funny. There was another good visual jokes you but that was the best part that was my favorite. He was just hilarious like oh my gosh, what am I watching one it was really funny like that part a gag was great. And everybody really good job Riley are the this is really good like I I was impressed with because that's like a big makeup production. Right. makeup and costumes and this one are like a big deal because like a lot of the other ones I've done in the past have been like Thoroughly Modern Millie. Oh, Oklahoma. Right. Like these are not big. Like it's just like some dudes in a cowboy hat right? Like you know what I mean? Like that like a big deal. They did a Little Shop of Horrors. But again, that again also featuring right we're in it's really it's not like a real makeup be done. Yeah, so they have like cool costumes. But like this one I was really impressed with, like the costume design and all the makeup work that they did on it because like it was really intensive to have a scarecrow in the tin man and the lie, the lion costume was fantastic. It was really good. And the Witch and the you know the stuff so there was a lot of really good makeup and costume design in this one. So it's like, that was really good. really different from the ones that have ever done before. Thumbs up not biased even a little bit. Because I know everybody in the production not even a little bit.

Collin Funkhouser  30:38

No, it's actually in spite of that bias that you still remain.

30:42

Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. That's fun. That's good. We have

30:58

this, like end of towards the end of last week. I went to a business mixer here. locally.

31:06

Yeah.

31:07

Another another one. This is always fun.

31:10

And are they this one?

31:14

You know, they're a thing. They're a thing that happens there.

Brandon  31:16

They exist

Collin Funkhouser  31:19

as a product in our lineup. I, I went and I was I was pretty excited. Because the last time I went to this particular wine, it paid off pretty well getting to meet new people. This time when I came in. I

31:43

didn't really get to make it very far. Then, like some people kind of glommed on to me to try and make some sales pitches. Oh, no. Which is my which is my personal favorite. Yeah, yes.

31:56

well documented. You love over attached sales. But yeah, it's really.

32:02

And I felt even worse, because one of them was actually like, a close like a client of ours.

Brandon  32:10

Oh, no awkward jobs

32:12

and I was selling like, internet or whatever to people from a new fiber company.

32:17

And

32:20

I Oh, hold on just moments. Oh.

Collin Funkhouser  32:31

Sorry. About that. Had a an eavesdropper droppings and eaves? If you will, sir. I don't

32:40

know. Hopefully you didn't send them to mountain doom. No, did not. However,

32:45

they were trying to write down phrases that I was saying.

Brandon  32:53

Ah, illegal. You gotta wait for the episode. And

32:56

exactly. Also, pasta asleep an hour and a half ago. You're

Brandon  33:01

saying this is way past bedtime? So yeah. Yeah, so tell her that she wait till the episode comes out just like everybody else to hear what happened. Sneak peak Reno's. No. The peak arena. Oh my gosh. So anyway. Ah. Oh, and so we're trying to make you their customer. Yes, II. Right. What's this?

33:41

This they they went and have now been with a new company that basically is selling access to fiber Internet in the in the area and really wants to know that.

34:04

You know, she's available for this. And really

Collin Funkhouser  34:08

wanted to talk about what kind of internet speeds we had at the house right now. Oh, no.

34:15

It really hurts.

34:18

And talk about how good symmetrical speeds were. And even if you had 100 and 100 probably be pretty great. And all this stuff. And like, oh,

Collin Funkhouser  34:27

well, you know, this is how the last mile things work and how we can do blah, blah, blah, and it's really blah, blah, blah.

Brandon  34:34

I was just like, okay, like, I'm, I'm ready for this to be for you to stop talking to me. Ah, and then while I'm talking with this person, I

34:49

sit down because I'm like, Okay, I need to eat. I'm really hungry. I turn and this guy comes over and he makes a beeline straight for me. And I'm like, Hey, what's going on? Gotta

35:00

know trying to eat this. And Khalid or whatever,

35:05

I always like to order finger food stuff.

Brandon  35:10

I don't know if it was gonna be like, yeah, if this isn't who put it on, right and obviously like potluck style or just like, random snack stuff style like, like, wax rules everywhere or like

35:22

it was it was partly catered partly, like went to the store and bought things for it at the thing. So, you know, it was fine.

35:33

Hey no more, right? And it's uh you know, your guy

35:40

comes over and like really excited talking to me and just starts picking my brain about like, what's your customer acquisition Then what's your blah blah, blah and what's this? What's this? And I'm a little caught off guard by this and I come to find out pinwheel, bro, calm down.

35:58

I have look, there

Collin Funkhouser  36:00

are a lot of very interesting degrees that individuals can get out there in this world. Oh, no. Okay, I Okay, fully embrace that education is important and that people should pursue it to the best of their abilities, then all strengths

36:17

and yada yada yada. Ah, I said so I said, Where did you go to school? Oh, Missouri State. Oh, cool. Would you get your degree of and I don't fully understand

Collin Funkhouser  36:32

what this next what this degree is actually supposed to be. So maybe you could help elucidate this for me.

36:37

I thought he was gonna say business. No, no. Finance? No. No. Entrepreneurship.

Brandon  36:50

Yes, is that they don't actually have that. Do they? That doesn't sound like they do indeed.

37:06

Yes, these two they do have what? Why? What's the point in that? I haven't the foggiest

37:16

idea, but it is the entrepreneurship undergraduate program. Learning how to build businesses from the ground up. And I guess you're probably wondering, you're probably wondering, yes, yes. Brandon. It is a four year degree.

37:30

Why in major in entrepreneurship.

37:37

I mean, it's like in the business department, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It is. It is, um, you can get a minor and Global Entrepreneurship. You can minor in online entrepreneurship or in leadership development. Those are what they recommend you get if you get a major in entrepreneurship,

37:54

leadership development. Yeah, excuse

37:58

you as a miner as a miner imagine being that guy because again, let's be real who's gonna get a leadership development miner that guy out like if a miner and leadership development so step aside

38:17

was

38:20

Oh it hurts right It just It hurts so much

Brandon  38:29

oh what I want to know I need to know I need to Okay, here's I need to know what like courses are this is I cannot understand. Man, this is a lot to take in right now.

38:43

I know isn't it though, isn't it?

38:46

Oh my gosh,

38:47

I this now you can imagine where I am. I'm at a table I just finished talking about how to get a symmetrical upload and download speeds to do a new fiber company. And now I'm being peppered with like client and customer acquisition new hiring best practices and like retention rates and blah blah blah and I get this bomb dropped on me

39:08

like first of all that this exists second of all I don't know there's a

39:15

wow. I mean, oh, oh, they've got it they break do I told me sent you the link for their four year degree program they break it down for you by semester but what you need to take by sit Yes, please. I need to say we had a leaky wine. I don't think you want this for your Paul.

39:28

I mean,

39:32

oh, here it's a sample schedule. Your actual schedule may vary. This is what they think you should take.

Brandon  39:41

Learn to innovate. First of all, you can't learn to innovate. Especially not a thing that you can do. By the time you graduate, you'll be able to start your own company or have one already started. So there's I'm gonna do like right now. By yourself. Ah, I say talking to you, the person who did this Yes, right now. I realize I've not given you like new insight here. Okay, but like saying like all right, so all right listeners, let's break this down. Okay, we're gonna go through before we, before Colin laughs in the face of this right? And says what do you need to agree for this? So we have this is again suggested course plan from Missouri State University. Okay, before you also listeners before you think that Colin and I are unfairly ragging on the Missouri State University, it's important that you know that we are both graduates of State University. Okay, so this is important,

40:49

I think both really enjoyed our time there and think it's a great school. Right? Right. Go Bears, okay. fondly back upon my time there and how wonderfully it set me up for a career that I didn't end up taking. But that's what you did for a while and it was mission accomplished movie.

Brandon  41:10

Yeah. So first of all, some of these are first semester, so first of all semester freshman, some of these are no brainers, right? English 110. Got it. Right. Out math 134 algebraic reasoning and modeling. Okay, and okay, here's what here's where it goes. All right. I don't know what G P one A one is. Oh, that's there. It was that we had to take one like that. Because I just want to be like freshmen like intro like, learning. Yeah, it was like community classes or whatever. Yeah,

Collin Funkhouser  41:47

it's like, it's like, here's where the bowling alley is. Here's how to study. Here's how to find motivation in your life.

Brandon  41:54

Oh, General Education prep course. Okay, yeah, that's okay. I had taken those two that's boring. Psychology Intro to Psychology. Oh, oh, first red flag and then have a science because you have to have a science somewhere. So it just says do a science whatever not even highlighted physical science life science. Who cares? Whatever. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Okay. Yeah. So that the psychology one that always that gets you some of these you can tell are like in there because they have to be Lester. American this democracy is citizenship. I think that's everybody class. Yes. Right. But then here we go. Macro econ. Right. Fundamentals of public speaking. Everyone's right. Again, that a lot of a lot of degrees have that one thrown in there just for IDs.

42:45

That's the one that I passed out on at the Guild Wars theater. And so yeah, I still have the fifth place trophy for sure. Oh, there

Brandon  42:53

we go with a bonus for falling over? Uh huh. I think and information technology and cyber security 100 Computer Applications for business. critical and creative thinking using information technology that has a lot of words together that I don't like. Right. And again, like a lot of degree programs are like, Oh, yeah. Do any cultural humanity you want whatever. You have to do some humanities, man. Okay, is a lot of these are unappealing again, it's a bit unfair, because most college courses have names that are unappealing, right? They're not named Well, you have to take a lot of junk. That doesn't sound fun, or interesting. Right? But like, semester three, Introduction to financial accounting. Oh, no, that doesn't sound No. Standard then follow up with micro econ. Right. Some of these are pretty good. More who might do it? Art? Who cares? Yeah. Managerial Accounting, Legal Environment of Business Law. 231 Wowzers.

44:17

That's fun. Basic business stance.

Brandon  44:20

Mr. Stats, that sounds terrible. Yes. Right. That sounds quite horrible.

Collin Funkhouser  44:26

I will say after having quickly scan through all these after the fourth semester, it falls off

Brandon  44:31

a cliff. It really does it right. Like a lot of this stuff is just like, oh, what else can we do? They've run out. Yes, right. Yeah.

Collin Funkhouser  44:43

By your by your fifth semester. You it's you don't get to select this. It's principles of entrepreneurship. Were finally in the game people are finally in the game.

Brandon  44:53

I mean, you know, it takes a lot time also Principles of Management, Marketing Oh, you have to have a history class. So just do it here. Some more law classes just because I guess they feel like they need to fill out their thing. And entrepreneurial finance. Gross. Okay, I need Okay, sixth semester is it's gone wrong. Very, very wrong. So after this like really heavy fifth semester, okay, sixth semester is the spring course. Right? Creativity, Innovation and ideation. I hate. I don't

45:33

I don't. Okay. hate is a strong word. That's a terrible.

Brandon  45:37

This class is 100% made up. Right? This is a class that meets in the quad and they don't see

45:44

exactly right. Nobody wears shoes. Yeah.

45:49

Oh, yeah. Yep, ideation

45:51

is one of my least favorite words that terrible word. Like just create idea creation like this. Just say it. It's fine. Isn't it? Oh, this is where you start selecting from your entrepreneurship list. Yeah. Which is also terrible. Terrible.

Brandon  46:07

Yeah. And then they go, Oh, you haven't taken the second English yet. Do that one. Please. Are you getting observations management? Right. Feasibility Study? Who knows? That means? Oh, oh, boy. And the oh my goodness, seventh semester. This This is Oh, wow. Financial Management when new venture management, you and then a list of some sort of consumer or marketing research thing, slash behavior. And then more entrepreneurial list stuff. Eighth semester is like, we needed some other things to do. So yeah, eighth semester, they just leave. The bottom was five hours of general electives to get your total. Dave in that Gen. Ed for the very, very end. Oh, yeah, maybe?

47:04

That's a that's, that's rough. Yeah, that's weird. I don't really know what most of this is. Again, I don't know. But like,

Brandon  47:15

this doesn't really seem like a real thing. Right? Like entrepreneurialship is like, first of all, entrepreneurship is just like a made up title that people give themselves. Right. And what do you do? I'm an entrepreneur, that means you don't really have a job. Oh, it's like to be called

Collin Funkhouser  47:35

somebody who is soon to be unemployed. You say an entrepreneur, if you want somebody who's chronically unemployed. Unemployed, you say they are a serial entrepreneur? Yeah.

Brandon  47:42

Right. It's a it's like the joke. I felt like, this is a this is gonna be a joke. When you're like, What are you majoring in like psychology? Oh, or like, I'm a philosophy major. Are you?

Collin Funkhouser  48:01

Right, that was, that was my very last reaction. I thought, I thought I thought this was a degree cobbled together by the university to keep this person from failing.

48:12

When he said

48:16

entrepreneurship, I was like, that was they wanted to get paid back on their loans. That's what I

Brandon  48:24

like, I feel like it's the

48:26

philosophy degree thing. Like, I did spend time trying to figure out like, but like, seriously, like, who?

48:34

Who is this a good for a good fit for? Like, because who, who should

48:41

take this degree? I don't know. And I personally

48:45

don't know that on either. Right. Like, I just don't know why you would do that. Right. Like,

Brandon  48:58

again, I feel like a business degree will get you the same thing, right. Like, and it's more useful. Right? Because if you tell somebody have a degree of business is a generic, yes. Like, is it like broadly understood that that is useful in a wide area of things? Also, yes. So I don't know what you don't understand why this exists. Because I feel like a business degree to be more useful anyway. Like if you're going to like if an entrepreneur if, if we're going to accept the definition of an entrepreneur is a person that starts businesses right? To make sense here, we need

49:55

well, and so this is where I landed of a business his degree is in running and managing a business. It's true entrepreneurship is what? Starting and selling just exactly the basics of getting something off the ground. With that's an entrepreneur, and is taking something that wasn't there before and creating something and then moving on. So this degree does not set you up to manage this for the next 50 years.

Brandon  50:27

This degree is operate a business or do business evenings. Yeah, this sets you up to go. Okay, you're in ready go now,

50:37

you know, get it started. I just thought that there would be more like, I don't know, like creativity things or like, because I like understanding buyer psychology like there should have been more psycho like, idea. Sociology

Brandon  50:53

with some good here, right, like, and so, yeah. Anyway, that's what maybe when they say random humanity, maybe that's what they mean. Maybe they'd be like, Yo, bro, do some psych classes, do some sociology classes, right? So you can understand, like, the thinking process and stuff like that i? Maybe that would be good, right? I don't really, maybe not sociology, because I don't know, if you want to, you know, David Hume, probably not gonna help you out too much. But like, maybe, maybe, eventually. Because ideas can set you up for things right, but understand how people think about the market. Right? And like, the thoughts on the market and that kind of stuff. Like,

51:41

yeah, that's just, I don't know, I feel like the whole idea, right, of being an entrepreneur, right? It leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth anyway. Right. Like, it's just my personal, like,

Brandon  52:06

feelings are my schema, right to have, like, what I know about, and I have met people that do this, but it's like a very, like, I know, it seems very, like, I'm trying not to say sleazy, that's, I'm trying not to say, and I did it, there we go. Like, the whole idea of like, I'm gonna just give you the bare bones minimum and like, start what could be cool. And then sell it and dip? Like, that's like, that's weird. Like, you know what I mean? Like, if you don't know why, like, although the only reason you do that, is to make money fast. Right? Nothing substantive. Nothing really like, of additive value, or there could be good ideas in there somewhere. But like, you don't really contribute to whether or not they succeed.

53:06

Because you just like, start and then leave. Right? It was like, what early internet was like, you know, I

Brandon  53:13

mean, like, people start websites, they do things and they sell them off, they sell off the property and they move

53:18

on. Right. It's weird. And it like creates a lot of artificiality in the market space.

Brandon  53:31

Right? There's already a lot in the market space. That's like, not real. Like when you start taking a lot of econ classes, you realize like, it's all made up. Oh, no, this is

53:44

like, like earlier, some of this is tentative at best, right? So just like

Brandon  53:54

adding these things and just like doing things just to do them without any like, sort of substance behind them at all. is odd, right? Like you just there's a lot of things I can think of right now that like they do this they're like a service they do a thing but it's like not a necessary service and it just causes like extra problem.

54:16

You I mean, like, this is weird. Well, somebody came

Brandon  54:22

up with the idea and then they probably sold it off and then somebody bought it so they can make money on it. But like if it only exists if it exists for the sole purpose of making somebody money is that a useful thing? I would argue no. Right? Like we don't need that. It doesn't need to exist. Well

Collin Funkhouser  54:49

in the name entrepreneur has come so loaded because you're right. It does sound super sleazy. It sounds high IV. I've never understood why people don't just say Business Owner. But I think the important part is, is that the ownership aspect is not the important thing to them. It's the I cry, I generated the idea for this, and I gotta bounce move on to something else. Yeah, right. Like I'm, I'm not here for the long haul, I just generate and I leave and whether I, I may get the business up and running, and then it just I move on to my next venture. Right. And it still may run or

55:21

Yeah, but I got to some point. Yeah.

Collin Funkhouser  55:23

So So today, while I had to, I, I had to select a button that says I was an entrepreneur, I had all these feelings going through my head. No. Because I, I went to a to a business, another business network,

Brandon  55:39

business owner, right, you like you generated the idea. And then you like our owner, operator, test dog owner operator, but it's like the data, your own sticker, right? So

Collin Funkhouser  55:52

here's, so I was I was I was at a business networking event. Another one. So again, we're just transplanting all my feelings for my conversations with the person who had the degree in entrepreneurship, but that's something they would they got they paid money for right now,

Brandon  56:05

I've started to understand more and more why you did your own business thing. Right? It makes makes a lot of sense, right? Like,

56:15

right, where we were just like, No, we're going to just go out this on a route like I did. And so all by feelings, and the dark shadow that looms over me is going to this, I was at another business rent thing. And they like, oh, like, we'd love to have you come back and speak or someplace that I had spoken to like a year and a half ago, they want me to come back and update on how everything went. So I went online to just fill out my application to submit to them to tell them what I wanted to do. And here, I had to describe myself. And I would like to hear are my five options

Brandon  56:49

ready? Oh, no. I like I like, I don't like those questions. I one time when I had to do that for something they told me to describe myself and I put in describing what I, I can't get

Collin Funkhouser  57:02

to fill in the blank here. So I got to fill in the blank. It was great. I put here are my five options. This is to deprive myself to apply to be Speaker. I didn't have to do this last time because the first time you don't have to do this process, but it's fine. Okay, I can describe that I am

57:18

an investor? Oh, no, I can say that I provide services to entrepreneurs. Or that I represent an organization that supports entrepreneurs. Or I have an entrepreneur. And the fifth option is other which is not, that doesn't really do a whole lot there now, does it?

Brandon  57:37

I mean, but you're not any of those things. You can't even fill in other. Other and then like, Please explain. No, no, it's just other. You could sneak in owner operator?

57:51

Nope, nope. Ah, yeah. And I was like, I don't

Brandon  57:55

want to speak here anymore.

57:59

To do this, because, right, I have all of those feelings about this of like, truthfully, like, I, here's,

Collin Funkhouser  58:09

here's how I look capitalism. We've talked about the interesting aspects that happened, it happens in the kitchens. As these move forward and the dangers they're in about refining and seeking after higher profits, while leaving behind pink and tan refrigerators, and the horror that that has left upon our lives. With that's been well discussed and documented here. But here's the thing, like when it actually works, somebody brings an idea to the marketplace and people either like it or not, and then you fail, or you succeed. Yeah, like, in theory, yes. That's our theory. In theory, like that's in the broad scope actually works.

58:45

But that's how it should. Like that's, there's the general mechanics around this of like, if your idea is good, and you can and then the important part of like, a no, can you get it into in front of enough people to do that's where the marketing aspect and these things come into it, but it's like,

59:03

the whole

59:06

three, like, I really struggle with this, like the value like, is that really bring value to the person giving this like, because if they don't have an idea, none of those coursework aren't, are important. Like if you go into this going, I want to be an entrepreneur. That's not a career plan people like that's, that's, it's something that you kind of find yourself in once you've created

Brandon  59:33

something true. What however, one of the stated goals of the degree path, I will say is to have, like, be able to be starting a business like while

59:44

you're there, right? So if that is the goal, like to be like basically start do your first run through with people they're like advisors.

Brandon  59:58

Like That makes sense a little bit. Right. But that That, to me speaks more of the sport like internship stuff, right? Not necessarily.

1:00:08

Or you have to do this because the Small Business Association

Brandon  1:00:13

SBA has ready for this piece off already. For me. These are reprogram. Yeah. Re I'll bring that up here in a minute. Yeah. Okay. Well,

Collin Funkhouser  1:00:24

there is one in your town, do you if you go to the Chamber of Commerce and ask about the SBA programs, if you go to a community college, for your college, and ask about their small business programs, J will sit down, and they will work with you, and advisor for free, or like $50. And I'm not even joking on this. There's an accelerator program here. Okay, so $50, though it's $300. And once you do, it's an eight week program, they take you from Hi, welcome to you may go out and get your business off the ground in eight weeks people hate and

Brandon  1:01:01

it's $300. Yeah. versus four years. But like, you don't, you don't need this. Yeah, I would say also the internet exists. Right? Yeah, there is there is there is a danger with doing unguided things like this on the internet, because there's a lot of trash out there. Right? There's a lot of like dudes, that are gonna be like, Yo, take my course don't don't do that. Don't do that. It's a bad idea.

1:01:37

I'm just going like, if you're interested in this, dear listener, if you're interested in starting your own business, by all means, get ready to start your own business, find local programs, with with three coaches whose Small Business Association or even through community college will have three support where you can go in, you can audit a finance class, you can audit these classes without having to enroll and just go right and not go into because here's the other problem of like, okay, so you're going to Wat take on loans to go pay for an education, that's going to teach you about business finances, so that you can go probably take out loans to go start your business, like, where's the income, like, especially when there are so many other options? And many, most businesses don't even required to go into debt for to get started? Why would you go into debt to get your education when you could go to other places? It's it really, it hurts me greatly

1:02:32

to think about this. Yeah, it's a that's really weird. I don't know. That's, that's, yeah, there's so much the foreigner already. Like that's, that's not a thing that you need.

Brandon  1:02:52

Let's just wait, especially if you just like, the idea guy. Yeah, right, then you just like, Really, all you got to do if all you're gonna do is like start and then leave. Right? This this is what like startup thing, right? Like startup culture, right? I feel like I thought that was dead. But I guess not. Like, you just need a loan and the ideas and then you like hire people that know how to do it. Right. And that's the other option. This is

Collin Funkhouser  1:03:30

what everybody will tell you, when you start your business is, the sooner you can get things off of your plate that you don't know how to do, the better. And that in the long run, it's better to pay the tax accountant to do your taxes, if you don't want to worry about them. Sure, you should be knowledgeable enough to have a convert to converse with your tax accountant and understand what they're telling you. But to actually sit down and implement it and follow the tax code and everything. That's not you that's actually doing, it's not important. Or, or the operations or whatever, like, get it off of your plate, find somebody hire somebody, or outsource it to a third party consultant, you know, person to get it taken care of

1:04:12

for you. And so it's kind of

Collin Funkhouser  1:04:16

like, okay, I'm gonna learn about finances. But I'm actually never going to do the finances because I'm just gonna hire somebody to do that anyway, and they're gonna take it on, and I'm just here to shoot from the hip and bring ideas into it. That's fine. If you want to be the person to surround yourself with a good team of people who can tell you how realistic it is or isn't and then can set the pace to make it happen. Like, that's how these businesses are actually successful.

Brandon  1:04:40

Yes, I would agree. It's not about you only it's about the people you choose to work with. Yeah, right. That's, that's

1:04:48

the important bit here. Like, that's here's, here's the other aspect of this is entrepreneurship is a very

Collin Funkhouser  1:05:00

So low individualistic concept and idea. Fundamentally, just okay, this is probably me, because it's late at night, and I've had a day. It's a very self. It's a very selfish concept.

1:05:15

Oh, yeah. No, I Okay. Because, because

1:05:19

it's like, what do you what do you mean? You're the entrepreneur here? Like, no, there's such a team behind you in this that, that none of this would be possible without without them. And yet the whole idea of an entrepreneur, right, there's not, there's not it's not a team of entrepreneurs. It's there's entrepreneur, doing all of this stuff. And that, that idea of really makes me angry.

1:05:52

No, that makes a lot of sense. Right. Like? Yeah, because because business, I guess, involves like, the connotation is there.

Brandon  1:06:03

There's definitely more than one person here. Yeah. Right. Whereas, like, entrepreneurial, whatever. It's like, at you, you think like, dude, right? But clearly, not one person is not doing all this stuff. Now, that's not feasible. Like, you can't be good. And an expert in like, all of these

1:06:22

things, right? You just have to, like, do that. Right. So I don't know. It's really weird. Yeah. So

1:06:33

while I'm all this is brewing in my brain, I'm sitting and listening to a presenter, talk about Gen Z in the workforce. And I. So I, which is very fascinating, because again, like, right before I sat down to listen to this presenter, I was talking with a gentleman who has a 20 year old daughter, talking about her working, and I had said, we have some of our most we have 15 coming up on 16 staff members. Some of our most passionate people on the team are Jen's ears, we have hired some absolutely outstanding 1819 year olds, 20 year olds that have worked for us, like, absolutely stellar. When they get on board with the mission, they're gonna they're right or die, right? Like they really, they're dedicated, they're gonna see it through, do I have to manage them a little differently? Sure. But once they're on board, they're ready to go. So I we have no qualms like, and that goes against what a lot of people say, of Gen Z are lazy, Gen Z don't want to work. They're entitled their bla bla bla bla bla. And so we're going to, you know, don't just don't worry about them.

Collin Funkhouser  1:07:47

That same thing with every generation, as also, we

1:07:50

talked about on this podcast before, where you just you find the right ones that work for you. And then the other ones aren't going to do that. So then, Jovian caught up to talk about Gen Z in the workforce. He himself being a Gen Z, running a company with only Gen Z and people who working for him marketing their consultation services to businesses to better connect with Jen's ears.

1:08:20

An interesting concept. That is, yeah, because you have so Okay, so

Collin Funkhouser  1:08:27

I'm going to just track with me on this. Ah, his origin story was I didn't, I was turned down by over 20 jobs. So I was denied traditional employment. So I started my own company. And now I'm helping other businesses learn how to employ Gen Zers. And I'm trying to consult with HR departments to manage Jen's ears. And I'm trying to work with marketing departments for how to better market to Gen Z years, if your company wants to have a service or product in Front of Gen Z, because who knows Gen Z better than Gen Z?

Brandon  1:09:03

Yeah, I, again, I feel like this is one of those additive services. That is a bit odd, right? Because like, here's the other solution. Have you tried talking to somebody? No, no. Ah, okay. I can't figure out what's matter. Like, Oh, yeah. Have you ever like spoken to a person about this? Yeah. No, but I just, I'm like, I'm sitting here listening. And I'm like,

1:09:30

I'm pretty sure market research is a thing. Right? This is not new. This is how people have come to understand their clients or their potential clients over the

Brandon  1:09:40

years, at least since the you know, the big advertising push of like the late 40s. Right. This is like, this has been a thing, right? Like, I don't think a company needs to know when modern advertisement was born. How do I talk to a segment of the market like they've got that nailed down, like focus group Groups market research, surveys, all sorts of stuff. Yeah,

Collin Funkhouser  1:10:04

the, the employing Gen Z thing was also interesting to me.

1:10:09

Because I,

Collin Funkhouser  1:10:12

and because it was, there was also a little bit of and I had actually talked to one of the members of the business before they start presenting. Because I was like, Well, what's, what's your role at the company and he's the liaison. He's the sales guy, he goes into companies to sell the services, and then comes back to the company and figures out how to like best meet their needs and stuff. And I just asked, I said, So do you ever encounter some issues with with your age when you're talking to people, because you're, you know, you're 19 your people in this room are very much not 19? And he was like, yeah, yeah, I do. I do get that sometimes. But I focus on being prepared. And I know, they look they want professionalism, and they want answers. So I come in, ready to meet their needs. And I was like, wow, how weird you know, your target market?

1:11:00

There's, how could they ever possibly get to know? You? While you talk to a 60 year old person to figure it out. It's like, No, he just did his research. But anyway,

Brandon  1:11:18

just talk to your grandpa was like, Hey, what are we? Yeah,

1:11:21

what would make you buy for me? Oh, great. So if I came in, dressed well, and knew my product, and was, you know, was had was courteous to you, and deferential that would make you respect me more. Okay, cool. So I'll just,

Brandon  1:11:36

yeah, wild, strange, insane off.

Collin Funkhouser  1:11:41

But I was just, it was, there's these weird tensions of during the talk of like, you know, Gen Z hates this town, and they hate this town, because there's nothing for them, and they can't get jobs that they want. And then it was like, Well, what jobs are they applying for? And it was like, like, managerial positions and stuff. And I was like, like, I don't want to be that guy. But like, also, like,

1:12:09

you know, there's steps and I don't want to be like traditionalist or here, whatever. But like, you can't, like, there's, there's knowledge and experience and things work the way up like I owe, like, a lot of questions running through my head about this. Right have like, there are people ready for positions and can do things and are very qualified, no matter their age. And, and, but if you feel applying to like, well, let me come in, I'm going to run your company for you. Oh, you don't want me to do that? Well, that's weird. Okay, I guess I can't get this job. That's a little different. Right of like, what are the exact expectations for this kind of employment relationship?

Brandon  1:12:52

Yes. Right. Like, you know, and also, like, we're, you know, there's a lot of like, you know, that there is a bit of an up end of like, well, I don't want to start in like the very lowest paying job ever, right? Because, like, we know, the currently there's a lot going on, it's like, people aren't like, the salary to like, expenditure ratio is a little bit wonky. Right. And so, that is, there's a lot of pushback against that. And I think some of that is just being like spiteful or like, Okay, well, I can't afford to take your entry level position. So I'm just gonna go for this, right. Like, I think that too. Yes.

Collin Funkhouser  1:13:37

Likewise, of of salaries have not kept pace with inflation or cost of living. This is a fact, this is an absolute fact. So that is a conversation with businesses to look at pay structure in accordance with those positions, about this of about, like, in order to manage something. There's a lot of like, knowing company culture, knowing the ins and outs of the dramas and things like that, how to handle the situations how to present things. So there's a lot and those aren't like, No, you can't learn this until you're 40. Like, no, I quit the proper exposure, guidance and mentorship, like you could get people there. That's not an problem. But getting their foot in the door and getting access to that and getting good mentorship and that was kind of toward the end, there was a better discussion about mentoring Jen's ears because there was a good point of like, yeah, there's a young professionals group with the Chamber of Commerce, but it's for like 30 year olds. And I was like,

1:14:30

yeah, very, very young.

Collin Funkhouser  1:14:34

Interesting, basically like no, you're not a professional until you're 30 and I was like yeah, I can definitely see a millennial made this made this program right like this is like very millennial thing of like our young.

1:14:48

So am I one of the worst use of statistics ever? Not ever, but like, my bad, okay. Was

Collin Funkhouser  1:14:57

was the use of of brain drain Okay, and I do want to ask you, when you think of brain drain for a city, what comes to mind?

Brandon  1:15:09

First of all, that sounds like some sort of like, weird 90s cartoon thing, right, like brain drain, but just Well, first thoughts on mind. Sure, but I would imagine they're using it in a context of people, like leaving an area. Right? Yeah.

Collin Funkhouser  1:15:35

Do you think those people? Are they? Are they locals? Or are they people coming in from out of town or steidel know overseas?

Brandon  1:15:46

Well, if you're talking about draining,

1:15:52

I would infer that you would be talking about people that were local to that area. Leaving. Yeah, so draining

Brandon  1:16:02

the brain power and manpower of the area. Yes. So so that you're discussing, so a statistic about the

Collin Funkhouser  1:16:11

graduation rates of people from a local Oh, I don't know, kind of relatively International University. And the the number of the applicants who graduate and then go back, quote, unquote, home, this, this would not fit that definition appropriately, would it?

Brandon  1:16:31

Now, you this, this statistic does not, isn't not applicable. In a university town setting. You have an abnormally high number of people, right? You're already these are not like permanent residents. Right? You don't like live there. Right? You cannot figure them into your calculation into your into your graph. So if you add that into your data, your dataset is horrible. Right? That is the weds hair. Well, that is the worst data collection ever. My sixth grade kids could tell you that that's a bad Zions idea, right. Don't what in the world. Oh,

Collin Funkhouser  1:17:19

crazy, that an individual who comes from here from China, ah, to get a degree at our program, who has a relationship with China

1:17:30

is going to go back home to China. It's the whole point of a university.

Collin Funkhouser  1:17:36

Right? It's not brain drain. They were never here. There's nothing to drain, they were padded. And then they got went back home. Same thing with people who come here from Kansas City or St. Louis, or all other parts of the country. Like they're not from here. Statistically, they're not likely to remain here like that.

Brandon  1:17:55

Yeah. So like, let's think about this. Okay, we're gonna pick just arbitrarily Cambridge, Massachusetts. All right. You know, no reason why you would pick that particular location, other than I saw it across the river this summer. So there you go. That's the only reason we're bringing that up per week. If you pick Cambridge, Massachusetts, right, you know, it's it's marginally known for its education system. Right, maybe, you know, maybe.

1:18:29

Right. So are you telling me that you think people are going to come from all over the world in the country,

Brandon  1:18:37

to Cambridge, to some of the most prestigious universities in the world, and then graduate from these universities? And then all stay in Cambridge?

1:18:54

All of them all.

Brandon  1:18:56

Okay. Why? Which you've reached that would be owl. That does, like, basically, if you think about a university, right, it's it is egg exporting. That it's an export business. Yes. Right. Because you are you they come in the students learned things, right. You learn, you know, Harvard do things right. And then they leave again, that's the whole point is non permanent residents. Right? You there for a little bit, and they go away, that it's not draining. Yes, there's that draining resource because then because also what's happening, right, what you're failing to the other of it. Well, let me say, one other of the many things that you're not thinking about here is if you have you have people coming into your area, to attend a university, you know, globally, right, those people are leaving. Okay? At the same time, more People are coming at like the same rate. So yeah, really, at any given time, when the school is in session, the number of people there for that reason is still relatively the same. Right? Plus or minus sum per year, obviously. But like, even if, even if this wasn't a terrible data gathering exercise, you didn't think about that part, like, yeah, all these people that are leaving, other people are coming back, right? If I just leave it in, shut out the university, like, oh, no, no, it's here.

1:20:47

All done. All done.

Brandon  1:20:50

We're all done. Now. That's not how this works. We finished it's done sterile boy.

1:20:54

So now because of this statistic, and it's like, what? How many? Okay, if you really want to figure out how

Brandon  1:21:00

grain has been drained, that's what's happened, how many, how

1:21:03

many locals went to a local university, and then left, or how many locals left the town to seek other employment or other education and never came back? That happened? That is the drain part. That is the drain part. My opportunities are not here. I graduated with a degree, I can't use it locally. I've got to go somewhere else that happens. Now. You then you have to ask, let's say so. So anyway, this stat is completely bunk. And, and it was from that launch pad that basically was like, we need to remake this town. We need to redesign this, the businesses are terrible, and they're not meeting our needs, because yada yada yada whatever generational differences that aren't real, so we like what I would it actually seems like, okay, no, I do some research and show me how many people actually left that were born and raised in the general 100 mile radius or something. And more people who said, I graduated with a degree and I couldn't use it here, and I left. Because at that point, then you have to ask yourself, Okay, does the person who graduated with an astrophysicist degree? Is their employment opportunities for that person here? Or do they have to go to Cambridge? Or do they have to go somewhere else? Because there's no economy here for that, then we ask ourselves, do we want to make an economy's for astrophysicists here? Or is that not something that's going to be feasible for us? Because the point of the university is not just to supply the local labor market with labor and brains? Like that's not the point of it. The point is to educate people in in subject matters and expertise that are generally widely accepted or whatever. Internationally. It's like,

Brandon  1:22:48

Yeah, I mean, that really gets to the point of like, what is the point of education? Right, like, what is it for? Right? If the point of education is only to serve as the labor market?

1:23:05

Um, that's not useful. Yeah. Right. But if it is, in fact, to create smarter, better

Brandon  1:23:14

people to then go out in the world, and then do things with their education to make the world a better place? Shock. That's what it's actually for. That's what, that's much. That's fine. That's not that doesn't matter. Right. So you can't say it? Oh, no. There's no buddy. No graduates from this university or coming to work at my, you know, XYZ business like, yeah, no, that's, no, they're not. Because why would they write? Like, why would why would they do that? Yeah.

Collin Funkhouser  1:23:50

If you wanted to actually look at a corollary to this, for a program that is actually somewhat designed to service a labor market. There's a there's a two year Technical College in the same town. Yeah. Who actually partners with local businesses to guarantee employment for people who get out of there with their program, right,

Brandon  1:24:10

almost like that is a place for people who want to be in the workforce who want to work in those Labor Industries, right, who need that, but they need training in order to enter them because the skill floor to enter some of those industries is very high. Right? And so you have to come up to that and then, you know, surpass it to move on and improve, right? So like, if you want to be a tradesman, like a welder, right? Because I know a lot of kids who want to be welders. So yeah, like if you want to do that, this is excellent. Right? This is cool because there's a lot of there's a lot of jobs for this there's a lot of need for this skill is a very important thing and like we need, that is an important skill. that benefits everyone, right? Being able to weld things well is A

1:25:01

great foundational to so much of things

Brandon  1:25:05

of our society and the thing that I cannot do, right? So if you want if those people want to do that, yes, vocational education where you learn to do that skill, you master that or you begin your journey to mastering that skill, and then can move on and go apply this skill and improve and on your journey like, this is fine, right? But if you want people to be welders, and you're measuring the welder output of your community by how many people graduated with psychology degrees? Not helpful, right? Or if you're measuring the number of potential welding jobs by how many people graduated with medical degrees of some sort? not healthy. Right? Well,

1:25:57

and it's not just like, you know, and I think it's important to note, like the, like, the, the non distinction we're making between these, like, there, it's not, oh, we're talking about doctors versus welders, because the brain drain could only happen with doctors. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Well, welding is an art craft and a skill form far beyond anything I could ever do. And, and takes thought and planning and is truly a cerebral process in taking making it accomplished. Like, it's a gift and a training and it's intensive, and it's hard, and that those people could equally as leave. But like, or whatever Kobe

Brandon  1:26:37

does not have opportunities for that. They're either right. Like, that's, that's not. So yeah, that's the that's the weird question here. I feel like there's a there's a lot of there's a lot loaded into this bad science, right? There's there is like, some bias towards certain education over others. Right. There is definitely in Trinsic bias into certain jobs over others. Right. Because these businesses, people, right, they're talking about people to work in, like marketing, and stuff. Right. And so, consulting, consulting, right,

1:27:20

that's not a I don't know how to tell you this. But that's not a pool that you need, just like,

Brandon  1:27:27

tons of people in well, right. Like, I mean, they would think so. Because that's what they do.

1:27:33

Let me let me show it. Let's, let's circle this conversation back around to the entrepreneurship degree.

Brandon  1:27:38

Oh, man, yeah, like, there's, like a consulting firm. Again, that's a thing that's like, not real. Right? That's a job. That's not real. Which, right? Whereas like, welder as a real job? I don't know. It's, like, that's a real deal thing. You know, I mean, like, when, and you can't like these. I feel like, there's a lot of this bias. And like, if you allow these people think, like, if I'm a consultant, right, and I means I'm adding value, and I make all this money, like, Do you know how much money welders make? Like, I know, it's stupid. Like, there's just a lot of this bias and like, it's like, it's like this weird classes of like, oh, yeah, well, your job is not as important as mine. Like, you don't do anything as a consultant.

1:28:27

No. What would you be surprised to know that the person presenting runs a

Brandon  1:28:32

consulting company, a consulting firm? Yeah. Is that a real thing? Right? That's like, that's like, all these businesses are out right now. Like, their job is to like resell stuff. Yeah, that's not a real thing. Right? You're like making what you're doing is you're making somebody's life easier. But you're not like adding any market value. No. Right. So like the this like a, I was ranting about this to somebody, it's like this Carvana ads that are all everywhere, right? Like so. So this this site is listeners, if you're unfamiliar in my outside of the US friends, like the website where they will just like buy your car from you, and then they will resell it. Right, this adds convenience to your life. But it adds no value to anything. Except for it makes all the cars they sell more expensive. Because they're going to just mark them all up so they can make a profit on their quote, service. Right. So like, these things are, this is like, I guess it's a convenient thing. But like, it's not adding anything except for like, arbitrary costs and stuff. Well,

Collin Funkhouser  1:29:44

it increases the cost to the next purchaser of the car, because now that person has to increase the price of that car to recoup the money. Exactly that it took for them to acquire it.

Brandon  1:29:53

Right? Yeah, it's like these are not real things like a consulting firm. Like I There are instances where these type of things are useful, right? It's not like every decision you make needs to go through a consulting firm. Right? It's not a real

1:30:12

well, it just counts things again, like, like, what? I just there were so many questions that came flying through my mind here of like the what ifs. And what about in art? Have you looked into this and talking about this, but it was it was genuinely like, Gen Z hates this town. And the reason they hate this town is because there's nothing to do him, there's nothing for them. And it's got to look, the starting salaries are super low. And now I will say salaries in town aren't low. However, we also live in one of the lowest cost of living places

Brandon  1:30:49

in the United States. Yeah. So like that you have a better.

1:30:51

So here's the problem. If you want to go into be a marketing consultant, you're going to Google marketing consultants, and they're going to give you a range of what a marketing skillset consultant can make everywhere from Louisiana to New York City.

1:31:05

And

Collin Funkhouser  1:31:07

those just are not realistic. I mean, New York City, California, like, there's a big skewed portion here, that makes it hard when people can live and work can work remotely. And now are like, Well, why am I not making the same salary as somebody who live in who's doing this in California? When I'm here in this town, and you're like,

1:31:26

Well, you're in the Midwest, my guy.

Collin Funkhouser  1:31:29

One of the things we like about it here is that I don't need to make as much money to meet my demands, like I just don't like my cost of living is low. That's why I live here. I don't need a lot of money. And so if you're, if you're only worried about that top dollar figure, because you're looking at, I'm gonna say it, okay, social media, tick tock, the finance bros. That's it. Yeah, we're driving this. Who's the oh, let's look at the real estate investor out in California. Who does this flipping things. And he charges like, you know, for the guy who makes a living. This is a totally legitimate business people. I'm not discounting this, please do not hear I'm saying the people who go around and they do the they do the power washing and cleaning of garbage can? Oh, yeah. Right. This is a fantastic service. You cannot charge California prices here in the Midwest. No. And so you can't look at Oh, well, if I just do three of these a week, and I do blah, blah, blah, and I do the math on mobile, and you go sweet, I got it. I'm gonna go do this. And oh, wait, you mean, I can't talk? That's weird. Well, that must be because they hate me or because they don't value my service, or whatever. This place sucks. I don't want to live here. Wrong inferences need to be made. Like, you should always start with like, what does it take me to actually live? What's my bases here? What's my foundation? And now what can I do put together make to make that meat and nuts again, see previous mention of salary is not rising to meet cost of living stuff. Like that's a whole other discussion to make. But you've got to be careful where you're doing your persons. And you've got to be careful about how you are assuming and why you're assuming people are leaving. And then drawing all of your inferences from that. And then we're basically saying we need to remake because there was discussions of remake basically the entire local economy. And also oh, by the way, local government to better suits Gen Z needs and I was like,

Brandon  1:33:23

What? Is that? What? Okay, okay. Again, this is because consulting people, right, yeah. Okay, so I'm not gonna Okay, so let me back up just one step right there. I'm sure. There are some consultant people who are like, actually good at their job. Right. But a lot of them are like, it's just like buzzword at Def, right. I feel like a lot of the people that do this are like, not actually experts in any of these areas. Right. And so like, they're, I don't really know what they're supposed to consult about. But yeah, but again, if you just if there's one, if, if that's even real, if there's a generational aspect of the community, that is dissatisfied with the things going on, right? If only Yeah, like you said, If only there was some tried and true techniques to understand what what they were having trouble with, and in ways things that needs that they have that need to be met, if only there was some sort of way that you could research that market, by the way, or just, you know, talk to them instead of making inferences about what they need, based on something you saw. Or one person's experience

Collin Funkhouser  1:34:52

is like, well, this is my truth. So this is what I must speak at all times. Because there's also thing about consultants, as well as like political kind. commentators, what's the one thing that neither of those two people have to actually do? Tell the truth? Well, okay,

Brandon  1:35:06

so you got me with the political commentary. Okay, ready?

1:35:12

They never actually have to do what they say needs to be done. Yeah. Right. They don't actually have to do boots on the ground implementation, they just say you want to solve your problem, do this thing. Okay, buy it. That's all they have to do. They don't actually have to work within the strictures and the realities of what that actually means. They also don't

Brandon  1:35:36

have to do any listening. Right? They only talk only talk, right? They only do any talking. So like, again, if you think somebody is upset about something,

1:35:46

ask them what they're upset about, right? It's not rocket science, right? Like, it's like, these are things.

Brandon  1:35:55

You know, these are very basic principles of like, human decency, right? Like, oh, we feel upset about this, either. Okay. Let's hear what you have to say. And then shut it. Right. Like,

1:36:11

and understand that it goes both ways. People like, Okay, I am, I'm born into a system that like, or let's say it's like, okay, this system doesn't apparently fit me. Well, great question to ask is, okay, what does not fit to me? And importantly, do I fully understand the system?

1:36:36

And how it functions?

1:36:38

Before I start demanding changes, or things like that going? Do I know where the history from this came from? What's the onus on me personally, for how I'm engaging, interacting, understanding this, are my only acting out of I don't like the way this is, I don't like the way this is now. Those voices are important for eliciting change and starting conversations, and, and making sure that we don't end up in the status quo, right? Those Those are really important to you, right of going, why don't like the system,

Brandon  1:37:14

understand the system, history of it, and then move forward. Because a lot of frustrations out of things come from

1:37:24

misunderstandings or misinterpretations of how things work, or going oh, right, you know, the system could be better. But given XYZ and the restrictions that we have around this thing, the system we have in place is actually pretty good, I guess. Um, maybe we can work on some things to make it better down the line, but like, just oral governmental overhaul because, you know, this town doesn't like Gen Z. I'm like, the local

Brandon  1:37:51

government. Right. That's, that's a that's a weird one. Because, like local government, usually the most useful government,

1:38:00

because they've been watching their constituents the most. Right, yeah, there's their needs in the most intimate, most directly. Yes. Right. So like, normally,

Brandon  1:38:09

again, not always, obviously, because we all do know that no matter what Colin says, that there is the way that government is designed to work. And then there's the way that it does work. Perfect. Those are not the same, right way. But yeah, like local government is like the, in my opinion, right, in my jaded old punk rock man opinion, right. The local governments actually the normally the best functioning and most useful government that it's going to be

Collin Funkhouser  1:38:44

the most responsive, comparatively, right to the state and federal, it's going to be the most engaged comparatively, as part of that

Brandon  1:38:54

is because it has to serve a comparatively smaller number of people. Absolutely, which is why it's good. But the point that you have it, that's the way we have the tears, the system, right. Although funny recently, recently, I don't really know why we have the state governments sometimes because they just do weird stuff. That doesn't make any sense. But maybe that's just the Missouri State Government. I don't know. That's part of it. Right? But yeah, the local government is like very, they they're in tune with this stuff, right? They're generally doing a lot of stuff. They have a lot of more like elections by just like randomly, right? They do a lot more things. Right. Because they are, like things move quicker. Right? Yeah. And so being like, we have to overhaul the entire system of government to meet the needs of this one demographic. Right, is weird, especially because the demographic is an age group. Right I understand having to overhaul big systems of government to, like better accommodate, like, you know, like, races of people were in the past that have been like discriminated against and you had to go, oh, this Okay, we have to fix this. Okay, that makes sense to me. I understand this. That makes sense. But to overhaul the whole government based on an age demographic

1:40:23

seems weird. Like, when you could just like, do minor things to include

Brandon  1:40:33

them more? Or would it be wild, right? And like, maybe it's like making a series of small changes over time adds up to big changes in the long run. It's almost like that's a thing that you can do, especially at the local government.

1:40:55

So all of this was was running through my head as I remembered that I had a I had a, I had homework from last week. Hmm. That down because I have a high tide bottle. Yes. Okay. I did have a haiku to write now. I'm terrible at us.

Brandon  1:41:16

I mean, we all are, I mean, both of us. I mean, there are good haiku writers in the world, right. That's true. But okay.

1:41:25

So I, this will be in

Brandon  1:41:27

the American public school system, haikus are used only to discuss syllables. Right. That's really a

1:41:35

great educational there's no rich history or art. Now find them. It's syllable count and how to syllable count. Yeah,

Brandon  1:41:42

maybe other people. I mean, I'm sure there are poets who have like, studied them a lot more, right? actually read haikus a in the US public school system that I went to, I can only speak for mine haikus we did at one point discuss like they're like, often about nature, but not exclusively. Yeah. Mostly they're used for discussing syllables and words.

Collin Funkhouser  1:42:17

So I as a way to lighten the mood as we end here to get away from the AHA, what we just did. I figured I should end on a haiku. Oh, yeah. Close out here. So no, so we was challenged to talk about a train haiku. So mine, so I specifically go Why don't know do I need to describe this too much, but the scenario here is taking children to model train Expo.

Brandon  1:42:43

Here we go. See last week's episode. The extra

Collin Funkhouser  1:42:48

model trains chug by child's eyes wide with the light. new hobby takes flight.

Brandon  1:42:57

Oh, there we go.

1:43:01

Out to do i Ready

Brandon  1:43:03

good. I like it

Collin Funkhouser  1:43:08

is yeah, yeah. takes flight. Yeah. So it's the computer program really wants me to say is taking flight in Google Docs does not understand haikus. Sorry.

Brandon  1:43:20

I gotta get better. I gotta get right with your Hi, Kunis. Don't need don't need all those linking words in there. No, no.

1:43:29

So the so the weekly challenge continues. The next one. Oh, no. We'll do one about Gen Z and overhauling government. So okay, hold

Brandon  1:43:36

on. Wait a minute. Viva la revolution. I guess we'll see. There will be a haiku next week. Subject to be determined to be determined

1:43:54

by Oh no. How

Brandon  1:43:56

do you feel about

1:43:59

okay, okay, maybe I'll try. I'll try to do our best. Okay. Well on that, on that eagerness and that with which we wait. We will hold our breath to see what arrives next week. All right. Love you