Robin Hood and Building Community | Andre Kradolfer

0:00 it why did you and dan decide to start this this game store when you've got a great career you've got a great education you've got a family right why suddenly decide to start this game store i was coming out of my shell but i started finding myself doing something i had never really done in my adult life which was making friends outside of work beneath there's a lot of people who come to these stores looking for something right uh they're looking for that connection and they're looking for a place to play and that's how we kind of came up with this idea of just the the third space a community yes we sell cards we sell games and things like that but our focus is having a community a place that people can come and just play games and they they took us all to disney world and something might might not kind of fell in love with it and just started taking us pretty much every year after that when when you're moving around a lot and your life is changing a lot from like culture to culture, language to language, right? Being able to basically go home to Disney World. It was the constant in my life. I felt comfortable there. I felt like things wouldn't change, you know? Like my life was just so much change and stuff that Disney World kind of provided that home feel. This is a big one. I know, especially like in the business space, like people use this word a lot, but I would say be curious, right? Get curious before you get convincing, right? Before you're trying to push someone, your views to somebody, I get curious into why their views are their views.

1:28 Welcome to Yes And Land, where we say yes to the reality of yesterday and today. And we say and to the possibility, growth, and imagination of tomorrow. Welcome back, everybody, for our next episode of Yes And Land. In Disney's Robin Hood, Prince John... taxes Nottingham into silence. Friar Tuck rings the church bell and nobody comes. It takes a fox, a bear, and a whole town of unlikely allies to bring everyone back together. Today's guest has been finding common ground his whole life. Andre was born in Bolivia, grew up moving from country to country with one constant every December. Today, he's a senior software architect and co -owner of Harsh Side Games, a place where everyone has a seat at the table. Welcome to the program, Andre. Thank you, Ryan. Super excited to have you here, my brother. Yeah, I'm excited to be here. So we're going to do some fun talking about Robin Hood, which is a classic 1973 classic who people from our generation watched on VHS over and over. Watch it, rewind, watch it, rewind.

2:41 Good times. So we're going to have some fun talking about that. As we get started, what I want to do is go back to that young lad that you were, and let's talk about what your journey was. being in Bolivia, then kind of moving around and what that was kind of like as you were growing up. Okay. Yeah, it was, it was different. So how long did you live in Bolivia? So in Bolivia, I was only there 18 months. Oh my goodness. I don't actually remember much of Bolivia itself, other than pictures and stories that like my parents told me and things like that. Okay. Right. And then where'd you go from Bolivia? We moved over to Peru, Lima, Peru. And this is where I first kind of started remembering, have some like vague memories because we were there for four years. I was about five years old when we moved out of Lima, but we still had a lot of family and stuff in Peru. So we go back and visit and stuff like that. And so you, when you were Bolivia, then Peru, what was the language that was spoken in your home? Was it Spanish? Yeah.

3:43 So you grew up speaking Spanish. Okay. And then from Peru, where did you go? And then we moved to Ecuador. So Quito, Ecuador. Okay. There for four years. And that's where, like, my memories really kind of started. Yeah. Yeah. Because you were five. Five, yeah. Yeah, those are some formative years. Yes. For sure. And then after four years in Ecuador, moved to Mexico City. Mexico City. Estructo Federal. Yeah. Actually, in El Efe, yeah. El Efe, okay. Now they've changed it. At the time, this was the 90s, right? So El Efe was much bigger. It was different. Now it's like the, anyway. They've changed things over the years, I've learned. But yeah, lived in Mexico City for a good five years. So those were also some formative years. Yeah. That was like eight or nine until like 13, 14, 15. Exactly. Then moved to Germany, Frankfurt, Germany. Which had to be very different. I mean, you're used to moving at this point in time, but still. Yeah.

4:40 Yeah. But it's different. Different languages. Yeah. Different continents. Always been Spanish for me. Yeah. Growing up, even though culturally they're very different. Bolivia versus Ecuador, Mexico. It's all very different stuff. And now we're going to another part of the world. Yeah. And different languages, stuff like that. It wasn't completely foreign to us because my mom. would speak German to me as like a little kid. And then when I started speaking, I only started speaking Spanish. So then she kind of gave up on the whole German thing. Yeah. But like my grandparents are Swiss and, you know, we have, my parents are both Swiss. So like I knew about Germany and German and stuff like that. So it wasn't too crazy. Yeah. And that's where I was supposed to finish off high school. But then a year and a half later, my dad, you know, gets a job in Moscow, Russia. No way. Yeah. So like halfway through my like freshman to sophomore year, we moved to Russia. And then you lived in Russia for how long? And then there I was supposed to finish off high school there. Anyway, fun story. A year and a half later, we moved to Tucson, Arizona. Oh my goodness. And that's where I actually finished high school. Okay.

5:44 I was in Arizona. My goodness, man. You had some serious moving around. Yeah. Okay. So your parents are Swiss. Yes. And what I didn't say is, is what your last name is, but it's Kredolfer. Yes. Kredolfer. Yep. And, and that is, tell everybody what that, what that is, what that means. So it's a Swiss name. There is a small town in Potsdam called Kredolfer. And we are those then. Kredolfer. Which is so cool. I actually think that's rad. I guess that's really fun. Yeah. So you, well, you're moving to all these countries, you're speaking Spanish, then you got to go learn some German. Did you get pretty fluent in German? I did not. Okay. I went to American schools, international schools. Okay. But they're basically funded by like the American embassy. Okay. So when you were in these other countries before speaking Spanish, were you learning English too?

6:31 I was. Okay. So you were at least getting some exposure to English, though it wasn't what you were speaking. And it was only through school though. Okay. So still like maybe not as much English that you were speaking. So then suddenly you moved to Tucson. Was that a pretty big adjustment for language? It was. Yes. That was actually the move I feared the most. Man. was moving to the United States. Even though in reality, like Tucson's not exactly a scary place, but like totally different. And then you're gonna have to start speaking English there because Americans aren't overly accommodating when somebody else speaks a different language. No, but by that time I was speaking pretty fluently because I'd already been, you know, 14 years in the American school system, I guess. I don't want to say American, like international school system. Right. So I was pretty fluent already. And, but also really hard too, I would imagine because you're doing in the middle of your high school years. yeah which in reality is really tough you know we um we learn a lot about impact of moving schools and stuff doing divorces because that will sometimes shape and affect you know what courts want to do with custody or who they're going to have move out or stay in a marital home or if somebody does move and like high school having to move in the middle of high school is like the hardest move for kids kind of across the board junior high is really tough you did both elementary school way easier right yeah obviously before then even easier high school though can can really have a really big impact and be really hard so was that pretty tough then i didn't know any different i don't know kind of like you just moved it was just the thing we did yeah right so what what was it like trying to build friends

8:04 and stuff when you moved to this honestly a new country you never lived in before yeah yeah so it wasn't too difficult only because attending international schools a lot of the people there are also experiencing the same thing you are right they're all expat families and stuff that are also moving around a lot right so a lot of people in the school and they're not very big schools like my graduating class in in russia would have been like 27 people right like they're not huge schools that we were going to uh late 90s early early 2000s and uh there a lot of you are just in the same spot yeah so So it wasn't too bad? No, it wasn't too crazy. With those, I'm assuming the moves were as a result of work, work -related changes? Yeah. It was your dad or your mom? It was my dad. So your dad. And what was his profession? He worked as a director of temporal affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter -day Saints. So it was just like wherever they needed him to go? That's right. They would just move him. They would just move him. Did he know that that's what the job meant? It was like you just move wherever they tell you to go? Yeah. And your mom was like, let's do it.

9:11 Yeah. She was always very supportive. Because they have to be pretty aligned. Like you've got to have, you've got to have the family be pretty aligned. Did you find that that helped your family be closer together because going through moves you guys would have to like? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Right. Because that was like our main common denominator was us. Yeah. Family, siblings, parents and stuff. Right. So we moved to a whole new place and it was just us. So it did kind of help us create a pretty strong bond between all of us. Yeah. We're all still very friendly and communicate almost daily. Yeah. at this point. Where do your parents live now? Here, in North Salt Lake. So they live here? Yeah. So you're here, they're here, where are your siblings at? They're all over the place. Okay. How many siblings do you have? I have three older sisters. Three older sisters. Okay. Okay. So you were the lone boy in the house. I was, yeah, yeah. And there's quite a gap between them and me. I came five years after the youngest. Okay. So they babysat you a lot? They did. Yeah. I basically had four moms. Did they ever get paid for it? oh i don't know i don't think so probably not because like we're in that zone too like we've got uh our youngest is six the oldest is 17. um trying to decide like okay is it just the job of the siblings to watch if we're going to go out or do we actually have to like give them a little bit and we're still we haven't yet so we're still kind of that's not like well i don't know like yeah maybe my 17 year old doesn't really want to my 13 year old definitely would he just is the kind and he's got younger sisters um but so far he's just done it when we've asked and just that's cool

10:42 that's good about it i feel like that's just kind of built in yeah if you're the oldest you gotta watch them yeah just you have to right you just gotta learn that responsibility yeah exactly um and you know sometimes you know as parents we kind of worry about like okay well what's gonna happen if or are they gonna you know be mean to their siblings if they're the ones watching at the same time like man when we were growing up That happened. That's right. That's what happens. Like you get picked on, right? Like it just is what it is. You know, I remember my, I remember a friend in high school, like her older, two older brothers, the one that was much older, he would just pick on her and her siblings relentlessly when he was the one watching. Like he would tie them up to like the tree house, like they were prisoners and stuff.

11:26 Like legit, they didn't want to and wanted to get away and he would do that. And I'm like, yeah, I think our kids have it just fine. Right. Yeah. When you hear those stories. Yeah. My kids call me in the phone like, oh, they play with this game. Like, oh, that's so hard. Like, all right. At least you're not getting tied up to a tree house. Right. You're going to be there for the rest of the night. Right. They're going to let you go. So it's going to be fine. Yeah. For me, I'm thinking about it like the times where my sisters had to watch me. I was the I was the troublemaker. They were like annoyed by me because I was just the annoying little brother. totally fair yeah so fast forward and you end up going to college what did you decide to study in college uh computer science okay so you decide computer science did you love computers i did yeah okay yeah pretty early on my dad was really into like tech gadgets and stuff like that so we had a computer pretty early on at home and stuff and i'd love just kind of poking around and doing stuff and editing stuff and i i got a programming book pretty early on like in middle school I would just read. I had, like, no idea what I was reading, but I was still reading it because I was like, this is so great. Programming book. You can talk to computers, yeah. Holy moly.

12:36 Yeah, I just got into it. You're out there reading programming books, and I'm there watching movies, right? Like, okay, you're smart. Like, this is good stuff. So do you do computer science degree? Yeah, that's where I started. I switched to information technology. Okay. Pretty early on. Okay. And then. Same. Post -degree, you go get a job somewhere, I assume, right? Where did you end up going? So right after I graduated, I was here on a student visa. Okay. And I got married to my wife. And I'm really lazy. And I didn't work on my green card or my residency paperwork. Yeah. Because I was on a student visa. I'm fine. I graduate.

13:20 I have an internship working for the LDS Church. I'm an engineer. Then it comes up that my visa is expiring and I don't have a way to stay here in the country. So I quickly apply to the University of Utah to continue to be a student. Oh, for a graduate degree. Because I was graduating and so the student visa would expire. So I go and apply for a master's program at the University of Utah so I can stay in the country, of course. And while I'm doing that, I'm... obviously applying to get a green card and doing all that stuff. Yeah. What's your home country? Switzerland. So you would have had to go back to Switzerland. Probably. Holy Toledo. Yeah, yeah. And you, have you ever lived there? No, I mean, we visited it. Isn't that wild? Yeah. So you get to go visit a ton? No, not anymore. Not anymore. You did when you were younger. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My parents, a long time. But you haven't been back in a little while? I took my wife last year. Hey. Hey, y 'all. After getting married for 18 years, I finally took her to Switzerland. For reals. Did she love it? She did. It was amazing. What was her favorite part? I think the mountains. I know we have great mountains here, but the ones in Switzerland, that's next level. I mean, yeah. I mean, Utah's got great mountains, right? And in the United States, it's fantastic. But, like, the Swiss Alps? Yeah, the Alps. Like, something else. I mean, it's kind of iconic, right? Now, is...

14:49 Is the Matterhorn, is that in Switzerland? That's in Switzerland, yes. Yeah, right? Like that is. That's iconic now in Disneyland. Yep. Because it is such a cool mountain. Yep. It's in Switzerland. See, there you go. Yeah. I love going to Matterhorn or in Disneyland and seeing all the Swiss flags and all the Canton flags and all this stuff. I'm sure. It's cool. Yeah, it's like that. It's my... Yeah, yeah, yeah. My paisanos. Yeah, exactly. So when did a love for... games come up for you? Was that something where it was when you were younger, teenage years, in your 20s? As far as I can remember, again, my dad being very into gadgets and technology and stuff, we had the first Nintendo pretty early on. I was just a couple years old when we got the very first NES.

15:37 The original Nintendo. What was your game? What was your go -to game? Mario and Duck Hunt. Duck Hunt, yeah. Yeah, the gun and everything. Oh, yeah. That's a classic. That's right. Did you ever play, like, Paperboy? Yes. Marble Madness? I didn't have Marble. I'm aware of that one, but I didn't. Bubble Bobble? Bubble Bobble. I got some cool artwork of Bubble Bobble in my office. Yeah, that game goes back. My sisters and I would play that. We would play Bubble Bobble so much. Yeah. I love that. I love those little dragons. Anyway, but yeah, it started with video games, mostly. okay so and then did you ever play like board games when did you start evolving into like more of the card games and other other yeah i i kind of dabbled with it a little bit in in middle school okay um i bought some magic cards and i didn't really have anybody to play with though yeah um and then warhammer okay got the little figurines painted them kind of tried to figure out the rules but you know like textbook worth of stuff to figure out the rules and i didn't have anyone to play with again i like i just didn't have anybody this is me i'm just buying these toys which is always very fascinating buying Although I spend most of my time just playing video games. Sure. Even though the board game, the Warhammer, the cards were always very fascinating to me. Sure. I didn't really have the community or the way to kind of get into it. Yeah. As you, in your teenage years, what was your go -to video game? What did you play a lot? It was always whatever the latest Nintendo was. It was Mario, right? Mario 64 or Zelda.

17:03 You loved some Zelda, huh? Mario and Zelda was my jam. See, I never, I never loved Zelda. Really? I know I'm too linear. I was like the open world exploration. Yes, I can't do it. Like I need to have, I start here and I go there. It's why a good, good friend of mine loves D &D. And he's convinced that I'll love it because I do love imagination and creativity. I love being a nerd. I do. But like in it, when I've tried, it's not. And there's no like, okay, I did this and I win now. Yeah, correct. And so it's never like captured my heart. but I also can appreciate why it can be really fun and creativity with it. So, okay.

17:47 So we're going to get to more of that, but let's loop in Robin Hood. Yes. Okay. So take us, take us to the beginning. Now it's 1973, right? That's when Robin Hood came out. So, you know, no spoilers here, right? If you haven't seen it yet, that's just too bad, right? Okay. It's been a long time. But if anybody hasn't seen it, take us kind of the overarching story of Disney's version of Robin Hood. So give us the overarching story. What's kind of going on? Well, let's see. You have – it takes place in Nottingham, right? And then if I remember correctly, I just recently watched it except for the last little bit, but you have Prince John who's taking over for who the rightful king was. Yeah, because King Richard's out doing – Fighting wars. He's doing the – Crusades.

18:36 He's in the Crusades, right? So he's not there. Everybody loves him. That's right. And it's his brother who not everybody loves. Who takes over and he's not great. He is not. People love him. He's not. Right. Likes to suck his thumb. Yes. Definitely. And he's known for taking a lot of money from all of the residents of Nottingham. You got the tax collector, right? Yeah. You got the sheriff of Nottingham who's a tax collector. That's right. and nobody was really happy with the way he was running things. And there was a lot of poverty in Nottingham, and Robin Hood steps up and sees this and tries to figure out clever different ways of taking money from Prince John and giving it back to the people in Nottingham, who he believed was rightfully there. He and his buddy Little John, right? Little John. Who, of course, is not so little. Yeah, correct. In Disney's version, a giant bear. He's humongous, right? And Robin Hood's a fox. I believe, right?

19:33 So that's kind of the basis for the story we have where Robin Hood's kind of being outlawed, so to speak, right? And doesn't really see himself as a good guy or a hero at all at the beginning of the movie. He's like, this is the right thing to do. I'm just doing it. That's right. And he's having fun doing it. He's having a ton of fun. Because he's going to dress up in disguises, right? And he's just going to, you know, trick Prince John and Prince John's sidekick, which is the snake. I don't remember the snake's name. Sir Hiss. Well, I guess that would make sense. Sir Hiss. Of course, that's what it is. Of course, that's what it is. And Sir Hiss just, I actually feel bad for Sir Hiss. Oh, definitely. Like he's there. He's trying to like be a good sidekick to Prince John. Prince John's smacking him on the head and sitting on him and throwing him out. I kind of feel bad for Sirius. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He tries to help them and it doesn't quite work out. So then Robin Hood has grown up with and been around, but not really had the ability or at least he doesn't think the ability to connect fully with Maid Mary, right? That's right. So like he's... They're from two different worlds.

20:46 Yes, they are. She's inside the castle grounds, right? And he's, of course, an outlaw. So have classic, you know, classic story of people from different worlds. And so, you know, one of the things that we're talking about today is this idea of bringing people together and also kind of peacemakers. So set the stage for us on like what you're kind of seeing is the arc of this story with Robin Hood and what you're seeing him play the role in as a story. Was he able to bring people together and who is he bringing together? So I think. It becomes very obvious there when they're all in prison. And we were just talking about that right now. During the, or right after the archery competition that Prince John puts on, Robin Hood is found and he's an outlaw. And they find out that all the people not a hand were helping him. So he puts them all in jail. I think they do a good job kind of showing off just Robin Hood bringing everybody together. yeah right helping him and his causes even though they didn't really have the means or anything like that to to do it yeah and i love seeing that part of the story everybody kind of coming together and yeah going to jail for him i guess yeah yeah and and and he's and i think when we look at why they do that you know he's he's beloved like the people the common people love him yes and in part again he's he's

22:18 an outlaw because i mean he's he's stealing from the prince so he is stealing yeah yeah at the same time like in reality what's happening is the people are being taken advantage of and he sees that need and then he's willing to put himself at risk to help them and i think that's part of what it is right he's endeared the people to him because of what he was willing to do for them to try to right a wrong that was happening that's right uh because prince john was over taxing the people yes you know And he also kind of provided a form of hope for the people when they would see him. Totally. It was because, yeah, they're still in these tough situations, right? And yet they have hope that like, hey, there is somebody that cares about us. There is, you know, a pathway out, right? There is good in the world. It's not just evil Prince John all the time. That's right. Yeah. So, and one of the things too, we've made reference to this, but one of the quotes that I like is when Robin Hood and Friar Tucker talking. He's talking about Maid Marian, right? And that he would love to, but he doesn't think it's possible. And Robin Hood says, I'm an outlaw. That's what there's no life for. That's no life for a lovely lady.

23:24 Always on the run. What kind of future is that? And Friar Tuck says, oh, for heaven's sake, son, you're no outlaw. Why someday you'll be called a great hero. Yeah. And so, you know, sometimes it takes. He's himself. outlaw yeah I'm doing this thing because I believe in it but doesn't really understand maybe at that time the actual impact of what he's having yeah yeah and why the people would love him for what he's doing yeah and Friar Tuck's like no no no like people do love you and this you are actually being a hero to these people yeah correct and I feel like it's so great that Friar Tuck kind of took on that responsibility to kind of help him see that is from his perspective from Robin Hood's perspective he's just being chased by all the guards constantly right and having arrows shot at him all the time and stuff right so It's cool to sometimes have someone in your life kind of tell you, hey, let me tell you what you're actually doing. Yeah, for sure. So here's a quote I wrote down from Brene Brown in her book, Braving the Wilderness, and I want to get your take on it.

24:23 So I'm going to read it and just see what you think, okay? All right. True belonging is not passive. It's not the belonging that comes with just joining a group. It's not fitting in or pretending or selling out because it's safe. In other words, I'll go back to the very beginning. True belonging is not passive. So how does that fit in with this idea of belonging and what Robin Hood is doing and what we can do to try to belong? Yeah, no. I mean, he definitely didn't, you know, sit back on the sidelines and just watch things happen. He stepped up, right? And he was very involved in trying to kind of help the people and stuff like that, even though he wasn't like necessarily the one that was affected by it.

25:07 Sure. right but he saw it happen he was he was very involved and um he got other people too to kind of not be passive either right and that's part of you know being active is just bringing those people together too yeah yeah and um like you said then what starts to happen is when somebody does that and he's putting himself out there he's sticking his neck out And quite literally, right, after the archery event, right? Because when they discover him, they're going to chop his head off. Yeah, correct. Which I always thought was funny. He has the sword. Prince John has the sword. He's in disguise. He uses the sword to cut the disguise off when at the end of the day, the goal was just to, you know, cut his head off. Yeah. He had the opportunity. He could have done it right there. Yeah. He could have had somebody else do his dirty work for him, though, right? He can't do that. PJ PJ wasn't about to do that right I always thought that was really funny about that scene so so with that so Robin Hood's doing this and the people are seeing what he's doing you know right to win the hand of Maid Marian but also obviously to help them and to support them because they're being taken advantage of and it starts to inspire other people to also take action because then starts to happen is and we kind of made reference to it but with friar tuck right like friar chuck i think is a good example of he's seeing what robin hood's doing and he's he's he's a man of

26:37 god right so uh he's already gonna be you know generally speaking pretty pretty good natured but he gets kind of inspired because he sees the hope and and he's there in the church um and um prince john had just tripled the taxes yeah right like okay we're you know if they're not paying enough as it is now they're gonna go triple him because he's trying to like pull robin hood out like he's trying to get to robin hood um and so it's raining um it's soaked and no one's in the church the pews are empty because a lot of people have been arrested yep and um sexton is there he's a little mouse a little sidekick mouse uh and he says uh friar chuck i don't think anyone is coming and friar chuck says you're right sexton But maybe the sound of this church bell will bring those poor people some comfort. We must do what we can to keep their hopes alive. Yeah, that's great. Right, which I think is just really sweet. What's your take on that for Friar Tuck and what he was motivated to do and what the impact was of that? Well, yeah, because he saw his role in the community and how he could help. And he didn't shy away from that. I thought that was pretty great. Also, with Friar Tuck, earlier on in the movie, And he goes and helps the blacksmith, I think it is, right? He's like, hey, you know, we found this at the church. We know you need some. Yes.

28:00 Here's some, right? So he's just trying to find a little way he can make a difference. Bringing the bell or just bringing a little bit of money, right? And I think it's really, it's emblematic of the ways that we can find little ways to help other people and bring a little bit of hope because sometimes it's tough, right? Sometimes. They don't have to be great gestures. That's right. We don't have to, I guess, comparing or contrasting, I suppose, with Robin Hood. We don't have to take every bag of gold from Prince John that he has in his room. It doesn't have to be that big, grand gesture. And all of those actions can help people to have a little bit greater sense of belonging, which is kind of what we're talking about, right? Just letting them know that you're there. Yeah. Even though Friar Tuck wasn't necessarily doing anything but ringing the bells, just letting everybody know. I'm here.

28:55 And, and, you know, what, what it leads me to is, um, a quote that I actually have come back to quite frequently from Dr. Vivek Murthy, um, who was the U S surgeon general. I just, I just, I love this study that was done. It was a study on, um, the epidemic of loneliness and isolation. Um, and one of the things he said in there, one of the findings they had, they said our epidemic of loneliness and isolation. has been an underappreciated public health crisis that has harmed individual and societal health. Our relationships are a source of healing and well -being hiding in plain sight, one that can help us live healthier, more fulfilled, and more productive lives. That's a cool quote. Like, doesn't that just put it so well? Because loneliness is a real thing.

29:42 And loneliness has always existed. And, you know, it's really, it's always easy for us to say like our time's the worst. Our time is probably not the worst. But what I do highlight is that today, because technology can suck us away from connection with other people, that I think people are experiencing loneliness in part because it's really easy just to escape into your phone, escape into technology, not put yourself out there. Before we jump back in, can I ask you a quick favor? If you're enjoying the journey so far, will you like, rate? and subscribe to our show it helps us reach more people like you we can design and create and build the most wonderful place in the world but it takes people to make the dream a reality and so what it takes me to is i want to talk about your your game store okay because to me like it's it's the epitome of what that's talking about oh yeah And so tell me for you, why did you and Dan decide to start this game store when you're a senior software architect, right? And you've got a great career. You've got a great education. You've got a family, right? Why suddenly decide to start this game store? Yeah. So this started about just a little over three years ago when my sons and I, we got into a little game called Disney Lurkana. uh they made the

31:15 announcement two or three d23s ago that there's a trading card game coming out with disney characters and like i mentioned earlier i've kind of always been into like that more like the nerdier side of things like the warhammer the magic and stuff like that and i've been a disney fan my entire life pretty much so i saw a lot of my interest kind of coming together and something i could do with my kids and stuff like that right so we got uh when it first came out we bought the cards and We were playing at home, just kitchen table and whatever. But it was kind of hard to get cards. They had underprinted the first set, and we were just trying to get our hands on as many cards as we could. The best way was to go to GameStop and their events, and you would get packs for participating. So we started visiting a lot of the game stores in the area, me and my two boys, two of my boys, and kind of started talking to other people in the space who also loved it. who loved card games. And I started kind of, I don't want to say coming out of my shell, but I started finding myself doing something I had never really done in my adult life, which was making friends outside of work. Yeah. Right.

32:27 And that was just fascinating to me. Like I had such a different persona now in playing card games in the Disney world with, in all these card shops and game stores. And it... helped me so much and i was working at home at the time too right so like it helped me so and i get out of my little bubble and get out there i found myself doing things like approaching other people for the first time and talking to them and and being the instigator of conversations and stuff like that that i i didn't really do before right i was just kind of hid behind my computer working as a software engineer stuff like that so it helped me in like so many different ways i was like this is this is amazing right uh and over about like a year a year and a half of visiting all the game stores in in utah and traveling because of orkana i started realizing there's a lot of things we could do better right and realizing that there's a need there's a lot of people who come to these stores looking for something right uh they're looking for that connection and they're looking for a place to play they don't necessarily have that at home or or anything like that and that's when i approached uh dan langford um my business partner someone i've known for 16 years now. And I know he kind of has like a penchant for the nerdy stuff just like I do and stuff like that. So I approached him and I was like, hey, what do you think of this idea? Let's start a game store and let's just try to do it a little bit better. Right?

33:53 And try to focus on what's important. And that's how we kind of came up with this idea of just the third space, a community. Yes, we sell cards, we sell games and things like that, but our focus is having a community, a place that people can come and just play games. Which, I mean, I think is such a needed thing. Because like you're saying, it's like a place that's not at work where you can actually connect with people and make friends. And people who have similar interests. Totally. Because at work, you're not always going to find people who have the same interests as you do. And it's not that it's bad to make friends at work. That's great, right? You want to like the people you work with. I love the people I work with, right? Our producer, one of the best guys around. Like I love working with this guy. And this is a yes and, right? And there's also like a need for it like outside of just working home.

34:48 That's right. As you're talking about it, I kept coming back to like my own personal life. Like I used to do some community theater. Oh, very cool. And it was so that way. Yeah. It was like we had this shared experience. We had this shared love and passion for the theater and for performing. And it was building bonds and relationships and friendships in a way that is just totally unique from something you would find at work or at home. And was just like something that's really valuable. That's why I'm a big supporter of community theater. I think there's so much value in community theater for bringing people together, for the performers, for them connecting with the audience, right? um and um it's it's for that same reason that as i've started to get more exposure to this this game world it's it's exactly all the things that i loved about community theater and i'm just when i when i visited your shop it's exactly the way that i felt i saw it i saw it take place i saw people coming in and recognizing people and talking and connecting and people light up I could, I saw, I saw visibly people light up when they suddenly walked in and could have this community of people that they felt like they belonged, which is something that was really special. It was really cool. And again, it's just something that I think is so needed. You know, when you talk about, you made reference briefly to your love of Disney. Yes. So I want to go back to that and then we'll come and then we'll jump forward again. Because one of the things that I didn't ask you about that I want to go back to and ask you about was growing up.

36:14 what your connection to Disney was and why that was something that became special for you. Because we talked about that before. So tell our audience about what you would do with Disney. I think it was Disney World specifically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Specifically Disney World. So I went to Disney World and I don't know what the impetus was. I should probably ask them. But I was just like two months old, right? It was December of 1985. And they took us all to Disney World. Something my dad kind of fell in love with it and just started taking us pretty much every year after that. So all the memories I have, I mean, from the very beginning, Disney World's involved somewhere, right? We'd go. And what was nice about that is when you're moving around a lot and your life is changing a lot from like culture to culture, language to language, right? Being able to basically go home to Disney World. It was the constant in my life. And I just, I felt comfortable there.

37:16 I felt like things wouldn't change, you know? Like, my life was just so much change and stuff that Disney World kind of provided that home feeling of like, no, this is home. This is where you come back to. Yeah. You know, every year. Are there any specific memories you have since you were there with your family of things? um i don't know that you do there wasn't something that was specific i just thought there's something yeah um the the the monorail people and i remember staying at the temporary resort and taking the monorail to the magic kingdom uh just the smell of the monorail um and like the turkey leg i remember our whole family we'd offer one turkey leg right because they're so big you know it'd be the whole family with it and and just it's just those those little things yeah you know when you were growing up what was your favorite park which one did it was always magic kingdom or did you guys go yeah as a kid obviously magic kingdom and then hollywood studios took over pretty quick and at the time mgm studios yeah yeah it was it was that at first and then yes yeah they eventually made change and initially uh it was relatively small it was they didn't think uh that it was going to be a whole day experience they thought people would just want to pop in there for a half a day and they quickly realized like oh no though there's more of a demand here yeah people want to be here a whole lot more often um i didn't go to to mgm uh MGM

38:51 Studios, is that what it's called? I only went once it was Hollywood Studios many, many years later. In fact, the first time I went to Disney World was, I think, three years ago. So I didn't experience that. But at the time, didn't they have some kind of movie ride or something? Yeah, yeah, the Great Movie Ride. Yeah, what was that like? Yeah, it was pretty fun. Um, it was like a combination of a, a dark ride, but you had actors in the ride that were like interacting with you and zoo and stuff. Right. So you got on this train, you're going through, you're seeing a lot of scenes from, from movies, big movies at the time. And then you have like this mafia guys come in and they take your train hostage and like, they're driving you off. And it's just, it was really cool to kind of see them blend.

39:32 Like just like a typical dark ride, but then with all the acting and theatrics that, you know, Disney and put it all together in one big show. Yeah. It was just really cool. I loved it. That was a lot of fun. Yeah. That would have been great to go on. Yeah. I'm sad that I missed that experience getting to go there. It's cool. Like think about it now though. Yeah. I don't know how well it would hold up nowadays, but I mean, sure. Also be hard, right? Having actors have to be a part of the ride all day, every single day. It takes a lot, right? It takes a lot to have to do that with as many people as you want to push through a line and push through because Disney wants to have good experiences and they want to have great experiences. They also have to push a lot of people through like a pretty high volume. I don't know what the stats are, but I've heard them at times, but how many turkey legs they go through in a day is insane. It's insane. I'm partial to a Disney churro, which they don't have much in Disney World. What's the deal with that? Can you explain that to me?

40:31 What is going on? We need to ask Bob Weiss about that. Bob, what is going on? The churros are amazing. That's the one thing I do miss when we go to Disney World. The churros just aren't there. And all the different toppings, all the different... sauces you can dip it in it's not there yeah and i i mean every time we go i i just i could have 10 churros a day to be honest like they're so that's what we do every time we go i always try to find the special churro because those always they'll always be that one stand you know somewhere tucked away in the corner that's like the the themed churro of whatever it is you know for sure it's so good yeah when you go into disney california adventure a lot of times they'll have that right there in carthay circle yes the one rise you turn right for it yeah one Like over on Pixar Pier, right? I haven't always loved those ones over there. Sometimes they'll do some weird stuff. They'll insert some flavor into it. I'm like, that doesn't really hit for me. I'm like, well, where's the original one? And I go find it. But I still like trying it. I almost have to try it. Hey, if Disney's putting it out, it's probably going to be okay.

41:39 They got a lot of trust from me. I will put myself out there with Disney stuff. So you kind of have this Disney connection. You go there and you have belonging there. And this kind of carries through like as Disney or Kana comes out and you have this connection with Disney and Disney characters. And now that you guys have this game shop that you've got going, what's that experience been like for you of having this game shop where people are connecting and they are coming? What's that emotional experience like for you? It's been amazing. Just to share kind of a story along those lines. We've not even been open a whole year yet, right? We're seven months, eight months in. A couple of months ago, kind of going with the whole theme of like bringing people together and providing a place for people. We have this one magic player. and she's really into magic, and she's also really into girly stuff. And usually magic, the gathering, and girly stuff don't really quite, you know, fit together. And she's got a lot of friends across the valley, and she did a magic girly night at our store. And all these women would come together, and they would bedazzle their deck boxes and their little top loaders, and they would play magic together and stuff, and it was just for them. a couple of them came

43:09 up to us after just saying how they'll never be able to do this at any other game store and how they felt so safe and they felt like cared for and a community for them to kind of just do this that normally you wouldn't find in the magic community doing that. And that was to me, probably the greatest thing that they could have said that we provided a place for them to be able to be themselves, right. To find common ground among. all the girlies here in Utah to get together and just do what they wanted to do with magic, you know, and provide a safe space for them and a community for them to do that. And that to me is like, we've achieved it. You know what I mean? Like, even if it's not financially successful or anything like that, but if we can give people like this, that kind of place, I'm just like, I'm elated. Yeah. It's so great. It's, I mean, that just takes me right back to one of the really famous things that Simon Sinek said, which is people don't buy what you do.

44:04 They buy why you do it. Yeah. And I feel like that's what you and Dan have created is people connect with the reason that you're doing it. Like, yeah, you got to sell cards. Like, yes, that's part of what it does to keep the doors open. But the purpose is to have this belonging. The purpose is to build this community, to give people a place. Right. And clearly people are connecting with that. And that's why they keep coming back. Right. So one of the things I want to ask you about, so like you guys will. you'll have these games that people are playing, they're playing them against each other, right? Like if it's a tournament, people, there's winners and there's losers, right? And so like in my world, in the divorce world, like there are certainly winners and losers and that there's a lot of discord that happens, right? A lot of disharmony.

44:55 What is it about the games that you guys do or the tournaments that you run that allow for competition? Yeah. But also allow for the coming together and still that sense of belonging with people who respect each other and care for each other and know each other and want to do it together. Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good question. I think a lot of it is just being able to do the thing you love. Right. So there is competition and sometimes it is a bummer to lose out and not get the prize that you were hoping for. But at the end of the day, you got to do the thing that. you loved right which was play lurkan or play magic or whatever it is that you're doing but it's it's a thing you love you know um and i think that's what gets people you know coming back because we're just providing a place for you to do the thing that you love to do and eventually too like i said like i've made some of the best friends in my life playing uh disney lurkana you know even though they're oftentimes they're my competitors in the tournament yeah you still end up just loving that you're doing this with them the thing you love with people that you love and it's just it's it's really cool it's a it's a very cool different thing to be a part of yeah for like a better word right it's a thing it's a thing yeah um well in relation to that thing um one of the things we could call that thing would even maybe be a movement dare i say and here's why i say that i found a quote uh

46:27 from uh derek sievers um and it was a ted talk that he gave and it was called how to start a movement okay um and he said if you really care about starting a movement have the courage to follow and show others how to follow and when you find a lone nut doing something great have the guts to be the first one to stand up and join in oh that's very cool i just love it like yeah you know you you and dan obviously have a love for games and a love for doing things you guys have known each other for a while and one of you on your own maybe could have done it but what i love is the two of you came together yeah like hey we see something here right we see something that's going on we see people connecting we see there's there's a need in the market and we're gonna we're gonna join together and do this thing together And then as people have come in, they've come in and seen that and then want to join that movement and bring their friends and join that movement. Yes. And it starts to build momentum that way, which I think is something really great. Yeah, we've definitely noticed the momentum piece of it. We've not done any kind of marketing at all. We do have a Facebook page that we post events and stuff like that, but it's not huge. Everyone just brings their friends. And that's where all of our growth has been. People get so excited about it, they bring the people they love to it. Like, hey, come do this with me. That's been really cool to watch that. What are you most excited about right now?

47:50 In general. It doesn't have to just be the game store, but in general. What are you most excited about right now? Putting me on the spot there. I know. Just in general. What am I most excited about? It could be the game store. Well, I'm going to Disney World in three weeks. We're really looking forward to that. Yeah. Okay. I love it. Yeah. Getting ready for that. All the kids keep talking about it. So taking the whole family. Yeah. We're taking the whole family. And remind me how many kids you have. I have four kids. Four kids. Ages. What to what? 17 down to 10. Okay. So very, very similar to mine. Mine are 17 down to six. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Quite the spread. Um, so you guys are going to Disney world. Yes. How many days? Uh, eight, seven, eight. Eight, nine days. Let's go. So you're going to get all the parks. Yes, we could. But you're not going to. We're not going to. Okay.

48:43 You're going to do which parks? We were just there not too long ago. So we're going to focus on the parks that have new stuff. So there's been a couple of new things come out in the park since we were last there. We're going to focus on those. Okay. There's a couple of parks that we might just have to skip. Yeah. Are you guys going to go hang out at the beach for part of it? Are you going to go to Universal for part of it? Where are you staying? Old Key West. Old Key West, okay. Yeah, we love Old Key West. But we love just going to the different resorts. Yeah. My wife and I are big foodies, and we love all the food at Disney World, and we love that over the last 10, 15 years, Disney World has focused really heavily on the food we have. And we're going for the... Okay, fun. At Epcot. Yeah.

49:31 We just love walking to the different resorts or taking the monorail or the... the new and the Skyliner over to the different resorts and just putting the food there and stuff like that, right? So we love doing that aspect to it just as much as the parks. Do you guys go to Disney Springs much? We do. Yeah, I love Springs. Yeah, it's great. And it's huge. It is. Because, again, I'm a Disneyland guy. Yeah, yeah, where you have your downtown. Yeah, I mean, downtown Disney is great, but it's not nearly the size of Disney Springs. That place is humongous and got some really fun food places. There's a barbecue place there. Have you been a pig? Yes. That place is legit. They have fantastic Brussels sprouts. They actually do. That's exactly right. They're y 'all y 'all got to go and you got to get the Brussels sprouts at this barbecue place. Yep.

50:19 Because you're going to taste me like, wow, I've never had Brussels sprouts like that ever before. The only time I've had ones as good as like really, really fancy restaurants where you're like really expensive. Correct. I mean, they're not cheap there, but like they're not nearly expensive as a fancy restaurant. They're amazing. Totally great. Yeah, totally great. Disney Springs is a fun time. What's good? You guys are going to have fun there. Yeah. Good. Well, not everywhere can be the happiest place on earth. And at RCG Law Group, my job outside of our podcast, we get that. Life throws curveballs, legal stuff, family stuff, the things you didn't see coming. That's what we're here for. If you're dealing with something and don't know where to turn, give RCG a call. What we'll do at the end is we're going to circle back to see if you have any final thoughts about Robin Hood. We didn't talk about Wally. No. We can. All right. We can.

51:12 We'll circle back to that. Before we get there, I want to do a couple of quick fun segments with you. Okay. We're going to do a this or that and then a rapid fire. Okay. Okay. So this or that. Make your choice of which one you think it is. No stress. No pressure. I'll always have opinions as well. Sure. So, fear not. Robin Hood or Little John? Oh, Robin Hood. He's so great. Now, Little John's fun. Of course, it's Robin. Yeah, yeah. Of course it is. Bow and arrow or sword? Oh, bow and arrow. You bow and arrow guy? Yeah. I'm a distance. I don't want to fight. Keep your distance. You don't need close combat. Okay. I can appreciate that. Yeah. I can totally appreciate that. Sherwood Forest or the castle? Castle.

51:55 Okay. I mean, castles are cool. Castles are cool. Man, castles are so awesome. Very cool. Are there any castles in Sweden? Sorry, Switzerland? Switzerland. Yeah, there are. You would find like in France or Germany or anything like that. I don't know, but they're there. They're there? For sure. They're pretty cool? Have you visited many of them? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Are there like some in the Alps? See, that would be cool. That would be cool. Not that I know of. I don't know. Someone's going to call me out on that. I know. Well, we're going to find out, right? We're going to find out if there's a castle in the house. Not far from Neuschwanstein. which is you know southern germany which was the castle that walt disney based the cinderella castle or the magic kingdom is based on neuschwanstein that's not very far from switzerland so like is that the one that's in soaring over the world yes that's the one is it really that's just in southern germany man that thing it's not too far oh i'd love to go it's gorgeous i've been there my it's fantastic goodness that's why i say castles for sure i get it and i'm not much of a nature i don't do camping Okay. So you're like, no. I work with computers. Yeah, that's fair. Look, that's fair.

52:59 I like my modern conveniences. I do too. And I grew up in Boy Scouts. So I grew up half into camp like we had to. My dad was a scout master. So we had to. He's got a lot of that. And he also loves the national parks. And Utah has a ton, right? Admittedly. National parks are fantastic. I'm not trying to take away from that. But I am not a camper, man. Bro, I had to go. I had to. I shouldn't say it that way. I had the opportunity. to go to a young men's camp with my two boys this summer um and we went to the green river and did some canyoning oh yeah which was great but bro sleeping in a tent it was oh it's for the birds man yeah i was like there's a reason i haven't done this in like 15 years because i do not care for that i should have been smart there was a couple other leaders they had like Big old trailers they brought with AC. Oh, there you go. Bro, I was like, y 'all didn't invite me in. You're making me sleep in the tent? But at that point, just go to the nearest hotel.

53:59 And I'm all about hiking. I'll go hiking. I'll enjoy, you know, Switzerland. We have amazing nature and love being outdoors. But, yeah, when it comes to sleeping or bathrooms or anything like that, just give me modern, you know, amenities. Yeah, I'm with you. There was a... There was a hotel that was about 15 minutes outside of camp. And me and one of the other leaders, we were very close to staying there. Like, very close. I toughed it out. I made it work for the three nights that we were there, but I was tempted. Okay, Maid Marian or Lady Cluck? Okay, that's a really good question. So, I might get to this.

54:40 My favorite song, I love Love. The song's Love. That made Marion's favorite Disney song. So I love that. But going back to that scene where they're all fighting after the archery thing, Lady Cluck rolls up her arms and she gets in there. She just starts fighting for the sake of fighting. And it's hilarious. And I love Lady Cluck for that. She's got some gumption, man. Yeah, for real. She'll be one of my favorites just because of that scene where she just gets in there. She's so great. So Chris, that's a tough one for me. Probably I'm going to go with Made Marian. Made Marian. Yeah. Because the song. My song. I love that song. Totally makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Board games or video games? Video games. Okay. What's your, if you had to pick one, what's your favorite video game? Oh, Mario.

55:27 Like the rich? The OG? Mario 64. The OG Mario. Mario 3. Okay. Mario 2. Mario Odyssey. Okay. How about this? I could keep going. I'm going to go with this or that or that. Mario 1, 2, or 3? 3. I loved 3. It was so good. It was really fun. I will admit, because I didn't have a lot of patience to make out with the games a lot of times, I would like to find the ways that I could then skip ahead of the worlds. I cheated like 100%. You get the flute and you move on to the next. Let me cheat. Number two, I never passed. I never beat number two. It was hard, man. Yeah. It was a tough game. Okay. Pokemon or Lorkana? Lorkana. Pokemon or Magic? Respect to Magic for introducing card games. We have TCGs because of magic, so respect. I'm going to have to say magic. Okay. Totally fair. Game night at home or game night at the game store?

56:20 Game store. Okay. Do you bring your kids there ever? Oh, yeah. I'm there all the time with my kids. I'm sure they love it. Yeah. I'm sure they love it. Opening a pack or trading for the card you want? Opening a pack. That hits different. Yeah. Does it? Yeah. Opening a pack. Yeah. It's like crack. People love that stuff, man. I mean, they call it cardboard crack for a reason. Opening packs, there's something there. Okay, I love it. Disneyland or Disney World? Yeah, Disney World for sure. And that's where you went? Yeah, just nostalgia, right? Totally. Yeah, that's why for me it's Disneyland, right? But boy, I'll let me have some Disney World. Now that I've been twice, man, it's fun. I love Epcot. There's always something to do. Like, Epcot is... That's my favorite in the Disney World area. Like, it's so good. The food's great. They've got amazing rides. That new Guardians ride, unbelievable.

57:13 It is the best roller coaster. Like, it just totally is. It's so good. Okay, here's our rapid fire. Okay. Okay, so we are going to get to that one question, but we will get in there in a second. Favorite Disney movie? Right now, it's WALL -E. Okay. I love WALL -E. Okay, so since we didn't get to WALL -E, even though this is rapid fire, we're going to pretend like it's not rapid fire. Tell me more about WALL -E. um about why you love it and if there's any kind of connection to the kind of stuff we were talking about yeah definitely um i love wally the robot i feel like how the creators of that movie were able to give him such a personality make him so likable so quickly without dialogue is phenomenal it's artistry like it's like you immediately fall in love with this little robot you're like oh my gosh i'm emotionally attached to this kid he hasn't said anything like this is amazing yeah so and then The way he treats Eve too. Right. And then just how he goes about and wakes up all the humans kind of from their screens just by fumbling around.

58:16 Right. Like he wasn't trying to do a big movement. He wasn't trying to cause a commotion, but just by being himself, he just caused all these people to kind of come back to earth. Yeah. Right. And I just, I love that. Yeah. Such a great story. It's a great story. It's so well told. It was such a risk. Yeah. Right. You're going to have a movie where there's basically no dialogue for the first half an hour of an animated movie. Yep. Like that's risky. And I think they pulled it off and it's terrific. I love that. Always amazing. Okay. Favorite Disney song. Love. Love. Yeah. You know, what's funny is I was, I was trying to download the soundtrack. Earlier today, I have Apple Music, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

59:02 And the soundtrack, only like two songs are available to do. Like the rest of them are blacked out. I'm like, what? Come on, Apple. For reals. And Love's not one of the ones that I could. I was like, that is such a ripoff. I was not really happy. You have to go to YouTube for that one. Okay, so that's why. I was like, because normally Apple Music has everything I want. Correct. Normally. Yeah, yeah. So it was very surprising when they didn't. I was very disappointed. Okay, I'm going to go to YouTube. Favorite Disney princess? Belle. Okay. Tell me why. That's a really good question. I don't know. I felt she just, I don't know.

59:42 She was just cool. She was different. She was nerdy. Yeah. I guess. There you go. That's what it is. Yeah. She was in her book. She wasn't into Gaston. Yeah. Like all the other women. And I'm no Gaston, you know. You're like, I like the girl who's going to respect me for my brain. Yeah, for reals, right? The one who's also nerdy. Yeah, no. I'm going to say Belle. bell was great i loved bell yeah um i thought she was uh sharp and quirky and endearing yeah um yeah i always i always loved bell um favorite ride at any disney park right now it's the ratatouille right it's so good though like yeah i get emotional writing that right right now it's so good how come i love it i don't know just like the music being like on top of the the roofs and in france you know when you're walking to the queue and the music's playing ratatouille and just yeah i love the story and everything there's just something about it it's so great yeah so the last time we were at disney world uh it was just it was my wife and my two girls and it was we were at epcot obviously and it was pouring rain yeah like so hard we were absolutely drenched and so a lot of people had left the park because it was raining so hard And we were over in France.

1:01:02 Yeah. And there was hardly anybody in line. And so we would get done. They're like, go right back in. We're like, sweet. We're like three or four times in a row. I'm like, this is amazing. I love it. And it's chill. It's nice. You can just hang out and just enjoy a good story. I don't know. That's where I'm at right now. But I do, I will say honorable mention to Tower of Terror. Okay. There's nothing quite like that one. So I, before. at Disneyland and California Adventure, Tower of Terror was my ride. Like 100 % was my ride. I loved everything about it. I loved what they did with the original guy from it, how they were able to adapt his voice to have him say the stuff, like the music from it. It was my jam. And I was so nervous when they were changing it to Guardians. I was like, how could they do this to my beloved Tower of Terror?

1:01:49 Agreed. I was with you. And now I love Guardians. Oh, they pulled it off. But I'm glad that Tower of Terror is still available. Yeah, hopefully they don't change it out in Hollywood Studios. Hopefully not. The whole vibe is amazing. They need to keep both because now both are amazing and you have different experiences in parks. Tower of Terror is so good, though. It's amazing. Man, I love it. Okay, favorite Lorkana card. Oh, it's a Robin Hood card. Is it? It's called Sneaky Sleuth. Okay, and what does Sneaky Sleuth do? He gains extra lore. So in the game, you're trying to get 20 lore before your opponent. He gets extra lore for every damaged. opposing character which is really fun but the artwork of that card is my favorite artwork of any work on a card it's him sneaking on the roofs and you have like the moon in the background it's just it's so well done do you do you play with it do you use it or do you keep it separate because i don't i have i have a ton it's it's it's a pretty common card okay right so i have like a ton of copies of it okay when i true i will play with it as soon as i get an opportunity to play with it you know i just love that card that's totally fair yeah Um, okay. Favorite video game console of all time. Oh, just cause of memories. The 64. The Nintendo 64. That controller and everything.

1:03:03 Like all the games that came out, man. The age I was when it came out. I say the 64 is my. Yeah. You were born in 85? Yes. Okay. For me, it was a Super Nintendo. Okay. I love the original Nintendo. Then Super Nintendo came out and I played like Street Fighter 2, which was funny because there's no Street Fighter 1. Street Fighter 2. But man, there was something about that. And then when 64 came out, I hadn't been playing as much. So I didn't get quite the connection with 64. And then once I started playing video games again, it was once I was in my 20s and it was Xbox. And I started playing a lot. And then now I play Call of Duty. In fact, I'm playing Call of Duty tonight with my buddies. We're getting together in person until they're going to... Oh, that's cool. Like an actual couch co -op. Yes. I love that. Like we've got... I'm such a nerd that I've got... four TVs on my wall, like, and we all hook in our systems to our own TV and then sit there and play. Cause we were such nerds, but it's such a good time. Cause we're like together, right? Like we're together. It's a great time.

1:04:05 I freaking love it. I never got an Xbox right. And so it was always Nintendo for me. It's always a Nintendo guy. Um, my wife was big into Nintendo and, uh, a few years back, she got one of those ones that comes pre -programmed with all the Nintendo games basically. And it was so fun because then We have, like, the hooked -in controllers with the original ones, and my little girls are sitting there playing, like, Mario with us and playing all these games. It was so fun. Yeah, I love those. Like, such memory lane for us. Yeah. And they loved it. Yeah. They're still fun games. We have one at the store. Do you really? We have, like, a little lounge section with the TV, and we have a Super Nintendo preloaded with, like, a bunch of games. That's amazing. The kids love it. Yeah, I'm sure they do. Yeah, it sounds awesome. I need to bring my kids to your store now. Okay. Robin Hood character you most relate to? Just like we were kind of talking about this a little bit earlier. I'm not much of a, like in front of the camera kind of a guy. I'm like behind the scenes. So I have to say Friar Tuck.

1:05:06 I was going to guess that. In my head, I'm like, he's got to be Friar Tuck. Yeah. Friar Tuck is great. Yeah. Friar Tuck is awesome. For me, it's probably Little John. Okay. Like, I just, I like that he's just. fun and he's also there to like he is there to help and he will do anything uh but he doesn't have to be the leading man correct but he's just like there's just something about little john that i just love i just think he's funny and fun he's a good time um okay what is the question or questions that i should have asked you that i didn't either about robin hood or about huawei or anything that you had had on your mind that you wanted to talk about that we didn't get to if there's anything Oh, you asked so many more questions than I thought you were going to ask. Okay. So we might be good.

1:05:57 We might be good. Okay. I love it. Yeah. I love it. Well, what we like to do is we'd like to end every episode and give our, our audience three actionable takeaways. So three things that they can put into action in their life today or this week, they can immediately do and, and relating to the topic. So here ways that they can help to create a better sense of belonging in their lives, be better peacemakers and bring more of that. So what would your three actionable takeaways be? Yeah, if I actually. You wrote them down. Let's go. Let's go. Tying to Robin Hood and WALL -E that we didn't actually discuss too much, but I think there's like a lot in WALL -E that, you know, we can draw upon. But yeah, as far as like. finding common ground something to feel like i had to do a lot growing up moving around stuff like that you know what i mean and now nowadays in today's world with technology i feel like that's more important than ever just trying to find the commonality and stuff right so um number one and this is this is a big one i know especially like in the business space like people use this word a lot but i would say be curious right get curious before you get convincing Before you're trying to push your views to somebody, get curious into why their views are their views.

1:07:20 I like the way you said that. Why they play the games they play or do the things that they do. Before you're trying to push your stuff onto them, be curious. Get curious and find out more about them. That's number one. Get curious before you get convincing. I've never heard it said that way, and I really like that. Okay, that's excellent. What's the next one? Tying to Wally. Sorry, on the curiosity thing. This is one of the things that I love about Wally. is when he's digging up through the trash it's just trash i just love how he like interacts with all the trash and he like takes it home like there's a cool piece of trash he takes it home oh yeah and just his curiosity that he brings to everything like that's i i love that it's enviable when he sees eve totally different robot he's not scared of it right he's curious he's like i need to find out more about this Robot thing. Anyway.

1:08:05 Yeah. Cause like when he's, when he's finding stuff too, what you made me think of is like, he finds the bra. Yeah. Cause he doesn't know. Yeah. He's just curious about it. He's just curious about it. Exactly. It's a great example of the curiosity. Yeah. I love that. So, so number one, get curious. Number two, um, make it human. Right. Don't categorize. Um, I feel like that's, that's something that when you're playing games, when you're sitting across the table from somebody you brought up earlier through your opponent, sure. But they're also human. Right. And then you can make a connection there. Love it. I think that just remember that whoever you're interacting with, whoever you're trying to find common ground with is just like you. They're human, right? So find the humanity in it. And don't categorize.

1:08:47 Don't lump people into something. Because then you remove their humanity and you either don't treat them the same or don't view them the same. You know what I mean? So number two, make it human. And number three, this one's probably my favorite. And you kind of touched on it a little bit with Little John. uh be humorous lighten up yeah right yeah being able to not take yourself too seriously yeah i think it's really important for sure and trying to find common ground with people and trying to help people and yeah i think robin hood and little john did such a fantastic job at that They're being chased by the guards. They're having arrows thrown at them. He finds the arrow in his hat at the very beginning. He kind of laughs about it. He's like, oh, yeah, that got close, you know, and they kind of laugh.

1:09:28 You know, you're like, okay, you almost died. But yeah, sure, let's laugh about it. And I think they're just such a great example of, you know, just being humorous. Yeah. Yeah, and then a related thing with that is when he has, Robin Hood has to jump into the water. And they're shooting the arrows, right? And he lets his hat float up and it looks like he is. And then he's really got the read, right? That he's doing. And then when he goes over to where it's at and little John's there and then he squirts him in the face with the water and little John's like, oh man, you totally got me. Yes. Right? Like just like the levity. Like in a very serious situation and they still find a way to kind of be humorous and just kind of have fun. Yeah. I think that's fantastic. Well, those are terrific takeaways.

1:10:11 Thank you for sharing those. Thank you for sharing. so generously of your time uh your experiences of your childhood uh of the things that have have motivated you to create this amazing space that you guys have over there at hearthside games and what that does for the community what that does for a sense of belonging for the people who who go and connect and and have a great place that brings a little bit more i would say like light and joy into this life which i think is super special and amazing absolutely thanks brother yeah thank you so much for having me yeah as you leave this conversation remember that yes the past can hurt and you can either run from it or you can learn from it so here's to learning and finding joy in the journey see you real soon