The Connector: How Plug and Play Bridges Startups and Corporations | Lindsay Lebahn

I have a Guinness World Record.

Are you?

serious Plug and Play itself has 62 locations bringing these startups from around the world, and they are constantly so impressed with.

Topeka.

You can do anything in Topeka that you want.

They didn't say, oh, when we walk through the door together.

All right, we have Lindsay Lebon, director of plug and play here in topeka let's go who is lindsey labon? Uh, tell us a little bit about plug and play yeah, well, you want me, or? Plug, and play.

Yeah, both uh, so lindsey labon person um. I am a Topeka transplant um previously coming from Nashville.

Tennessee yeah.

So, um, topeka is definitely one of the smallest communities I've ever lived in. Um grew up in San Antonio, texas, and then um went to school at URI, played volleyball up there, um, and then moved to Nashville. From Nashville, came to Topeka and that's a jump that not a lot make.

Yeah, I would say so, I called it, topeka, when I didn't know better which is terrible, and I'm so ashamed of it now because it truly is what you make of it right, this is your public apology tour.

Yes, I should. Yeah, I'm sorry, I should never have said it.

But to all those who were affected by my actions.

Mostly in Nashville. I've never said it here but I was just like they joked about it, like oh, so you're moving to Topeka Kansas. And I was like, yeah, and I didn't know, you mean it's not sexy, right.

Right and that's.

I came from Nashville, which is super sexy. Well, my favorite is you can.

You can always tell who is not from the area or has not lived in Kansas by those who read online and call it Topeka.

Oh, yeah, like.

Oh, we're going to Topeka, like no no, I get. Topeka a lot yeah.

It's just just Topeka.

Just.

Topeka? Yeah, no, and it's. It's more than I could have ever imagined it would be, and I'm happy to talk through a little bit of my experience when like something that Nashville, where most people probably would die to live, and what that entails, because it's a lot of the same stuff that you have here in Topeka just at a different scale and just you know, different problems. Like every city, has their their pluses and their minuses.

And there's not necessarily things that you would think about when it comes to, like Nashville or Topeka and some of those things. So I've really, really enjoyed Topeka, but yeah, not not from here originally, so I think I appreciate it a little bit more, having experienced other places. Mom of two, I've got a five-year-old and a four-year-old they are so funny.

That's all boys girls.

One of each.

One of each my boy's a sweetheart my girl. Her favorite band is Kiss.

Let's go.

And she just goes. Mama Also explains it a little bit Love it.

That's funny, that's awesome also explains it a little bit yeah.

Um I coach volleyball, so always a sports person. Um, still very active in like the youth community here.

So you said you went to URI, rhode Island, yeah, so from Texas to Rhode Island about as different as I could get. You'll learn kind of through this. I'm a yes person so like a lot of things that have got me to where I am today, it's cause I just said yes and like let's go.

Like, yeah, let's go, yeah, why not? What could happen?

Yeah.

I get a really good experience.

I get to do all this stuff, but yeah, what's the worst that could happen? But like I don't ever want to miss out on that opportunity.

Right, yeah, and how long have you been here? You said 10 years. Now 10 years, come on yeah.

We're up on my decade. Going on a decade.

That's really crazy.

I love it Okay, so there's so much there. Yeah, that's just me, and we were talking off mic about a few things before we started. But maybe before we get into a lot of that, maybe just tell us a little bit about Plug Play. What is it doing in Topeka? You know those kinds of things.

Yeah, so our goal at Plug and Play is to really drive innovation by connecting entrepreneurs whether that be the startup or the entrepreneur themselves, corporations You've got the governments, the universities, the VCs and the entire ecosystem and really bringing them together in what we like to call open innovation. So that means that you aren't hiding things behind your four walls. It takes every single one of those entities to really move the needle when it comes to innovation, and so we bring them all together in the easiest way is kind of like a shark tank style. So we bring these startups from around the world. Usually we're about half US, half international companies.

All the way We've got some coming in from Australia, we've had people come in from Asia, so really really driving that like global presence. Plug and Play itself has 62 locations, with 10 of them being in the United States and one of them being in Topeka, kansas.

So it's really cool to kind of be a part of such a global presence but, also making sure that that local presence also doesn't get lost and we really build upon cities that already have a foundation and already know what it takes to make that innovation work and drive. And it's a lot of hard work, right. There's a lot that goes to it, and we want to just exemplify what is already happening in those communities and in that region. We do it in kind of a vertical or an industry approach, so we are in charge of our animal health and ag tech. That obviously fits being in the heartland.

But we also know that there's plenty of entrepreneurs that aren't in that spot, that we don't serve immediately, but we can, because we've got other industries, so we serve.

So you can like connect them with others. Yeah.

So, just because I'm not going to be your one point of contact, I've got a colleague who's in finance and does all of our FinTech partnerships and can get you connected in. So we've connected a lot of local entrepreneurs into our ecosystem that necessarily weren't animal health or active.

So does. Uh, how does that start? So is it like you know, if I'm like, hey, I have an idea for a business or a service or a technology, I kind of come to you, or is there like an application or something? Like I come to you and basically start a conversation and you just kind of see where it goes.

Yeah, we, um, we're a little bit further advanced. So you have to have an MVP, a minimal viable product. So it can't be the idea stage necessarily but, we're everywhere, from pre-seed all the way up to um, like series C and beyond Um what does any of that mean?

Lots of money that they've raised and are like established companies, right?

Um, so we go from. Basically, you have to have a concept of an idea. We aren't helping formulate that, but we work with SBDCs and we work with GoToPeak and we work with OmniStircle and we work with all these other people. That kind of can fill that gap.

Okay, they can get people off the ground. You're taking people who have just gotten off the ground.

Yeah, yeah, cool and so our model is we invest early, so we have our own family fund, so we do invest, we're one of the largest investors. But it's not guaranteed investment. But we take startups and take them through a three month program, um, and get them connected. And get them connected to mentors, get them connected into K state, cause a lot of them have never heard of K state or KU um. Getting them, you know, with interns at Washburn and getting all these hands on tactical um events and things like that. Take them from that and then get to also connect them into our corporate partners. So our corporate partners are a really big portion of that and for the startup they're like I get a chance to meet Hills.

Pet Nutrition Like this has been on my bucket list forever and we know that we've sourced them for that technology. We know that it's a fit. So now it's just how can we get those pilots and those POCs going so that you can actually get this out to the market? So we usually work five years out from shelf life. Get this out to the market? So we usually work five years out from shelf life. So we are working horizon two, three. So five years out. So think of what the world was like five years ago.

That's when these technologies were first introduced to Hills and to Cargill and to some of our corporate partners, and the world doesn't even know about them yet which is just I mean talk about mind blowing.

And again.

Sometimes it's it's easy to get lost, especially with innovation, cause it's it's so gray, it's everything and nothing all at the same time. But a lot has to happen in order for these things to work, um, and in order for the end consumer to finally touch it and feel it. There's a lot of testing, there's a lot of validation that has to go into play, it's a lot of research, so that that has to go through so many different processes before any of us even know about it.

So when you uh, I love the shark tank analogy that obviously for a non investor entrepreneur, you know, makes a lot of sense Is there ever actually kind of a shark tank environment where, like, obviously not like a show, but like where there's all the people in the room and they're talking in the room with venture capitalists and other types of people.

We host an event here every June. It's our expo and it's where our startups get up on stage and do a four minute pitch, like you would see on Shark Tank oh, so it actually is yeah, truly um, we don't get to cut the check right then and there but yeah, there has been a couple of investors like shred them to pieces. You know, no, we don't do q and a is hard in like bigger groups so it's a little bit.

You have to like run a mic and it's never it's kind of funky yeah, um, but we've had local investors that have invested in our companies which is really really cool to see, to see, even though they aren't in the animal halt like this person is just an angel investor and they like the technology. They saw it at our event and got to invest.

Are there any businesses here in Topeka that people would recognize that have gone through Plug and Play and got capital from them?

Not, um, not here locally, no, but um, the way Plug and Play got its start was our founder and ceo had a rug shop in palo alto and he was there was above the rug shop there was a little office space and he was working with a couple of entrepreneurs and they're like, hey, we need office space but we don't have any money to pay for it. Like, can we just trade equity in our company and we can take over that? And he's like tell me about your company and started asking about it. That was Google.

What Are you serious?

That worked out really well, oh my.

God, he didn't ask for enough Right, right.

And so through the talks with Google. He kept saying, like he kept bragging at the golf course, like hey, these two dudes are really up to something above my rug shop.

Wow.

We got to. They need you guys need to meet them, and so that's kind of where this idea of plug and play came was like it takes everyone. It takes the guys on the golf course that don't know anything about the technology but maybe have the funds to care and investing. It takes the corporations who are looking for this kind of technology. They're like hey we've got it right here.

So yeah, that's wild.

It's really easy when Google's your first investment. Yeah, actually.

It's really easy. Yeah, you got a lot of street cred right there, oh yeah, man, that's wild.

Like how do you just not peak at that point? Like man, you just kept going. It's amazing.

Well then, the next one was like PayPal and Logitech like paypal, when like elon was involved like wow, that's crazy.

Yeah, man, what interesting, what a small world, that well as someone who records shark tank and watches their seasons? Diligently. I'm super fascinated just taking in all these information notes watching? Yeah, absolutely, my wife thinks I'm the weirdest person ever where you know she comes home, and I'm just watching episode 14 of season 16 of shark tank and she she goes you are a nerd and you need to quit it.

No, but it's so fascinating. These people have come up with ideas to problems that you like. Why didn't I think about that? Or maybe I did think about it and I was like, ah, too lazy to do it takes a lot of work to get these things off the ground.

But yeah, it's it's truly incredible.

You know, we talked about it a little bit earlier. Like you always want to be the dumbest one in the room and I am and. I've never been happier, and it's so cool to see.

Here's a question. So I feel like some people are just meant to be entrepreneurs and some aren't, and so I just met you 30 minutes ago, and do you, being surrounded by all these ideas, do you ever think like I?

want to do that. Absolutely not Okay.

I'm too tired.

I see I know too much right Like I know how hard it is. These entrepreneurs work day in, day out. We work globally, so some of them are taking meetings at 2am their time because they want to do business in the U? S and to do business in the. U S you have to do it at weird times, um, especially if you're Pacific standard time and you're in Australia. So, like they are, they entrepreneurs do not get enough credit for how hard it is.

You know we always. It's like the iceberg, right. You see the peak and you're like that's really impressive, but you have no idea what's underneath that ice and what has all gone into it. It's almost even more impressive the further down you dig and the further down, you see.

So like, think of every time you see an entrepreneur, a small business, think of them as an iceberg and like, even if you're impressed, there is so much more to them that they that you should be impressed about that you don't even see, um, so no, and I'm so thankful for them.

And I always tell them that.

I could never and even with my ideas. I'm like I'll sell you my idea.

I don't want to do it.

I think sometimes I have some better ideas now that I'm like oh, I look at problems a little bit different.

Right, like, I'm like, oh wow.

You know you could solve for that. But back to my two kids. I'm tired. And I don't know like there's a lot that comes with that.

Yeah, man, that's crazy. I remember I had a friend in college who, as a college student, came up with this like product basically, and like started a company while we were in college and I was, like you can do that, like what are you doing?

you know and like had a physical product and that she invented and it was like this. It was for dogs, it was called the paw wash and it was like this little thing that you would like. It was like a tube with brushes inside that you'd wash your dog's paws with. And she, like had a commercial on tv. I was like I, I didn't know you could like, you know, it's like actually made it happen and I was like my brain does not work like that. This is crazy.

I think even you, uh, we've had this conversation. Uh, just you know, I think it was with uh, oh, the safe souls guy and how he was just an entrepreneur just growing up and you're like my brain, does not?

you know how to make money doing this or talking about how his dad gave him like 80 bucks to do a lemonade stand as a kid and he made 500 bucks. Right, I was like there's nothing in me that would know how to do that. Like you know, here's take 80 and come up with 500. Like I would have just wasted 80. Right, here's 80 $80 and come up with $500. Like I would have just wasted $80.

Right, here's $80. In two weeks you need to make $500. How do you do that? Yeah for sure.

So I am so impressed with entrepreneurs and people. You know I have friends. Their brains just work like that. They're coming up with ideas like, oh, someone could start a business like that.

I'm like, yeah, that's awesome on them the more I do know that they need us non entrepreneurs in their lives. So, like there's still a lot of value that I can, I find, like the very first deck I looked at, which is like a pitch presentation, right I look at it, it's got seven different colors, seven different fonts.

It's way too nerdy.

And I was like who put this together?

Papyrus fonts. What are you doing?

Stop it so like I was, like they do need us in some level.

It does take everyone.

But, I definitely am with you that my brain just is not like that, but the connector and they, they need that ecosystem and you know we're lucky enough to bring these startups from around the world and they are constantly so impressed with Topeka and the Midwest hospitality that we have here and I think sometimes we take that for granted. So good, yeah, because we're used to it right. You know, if you spend any time in New York, you're just like God. These people just don't even care about me.

They're kind of rude, so mean they just bumped into me and didn't say sorry. They didn't tell me my shirt.

Didn't ask where it was when we walked through the door together.

Scooch right past you. Yeah, oh, excuse me.

Yeah, it's what? Yeah, I, uh, I. I came across this personality test one time that we use and it basically puts you in one of four, four quadrants. And one is like you develop ideas. One is you develop people, one is you work with people and one is you work with ideas. So is you work with ideas? So like working with ideas is like you're administrative. Working with people is like you know, maybe like a counselor or like you know you really you can be with people, developing people, like coaching, helping them grow well. So the one is like entrepreneurs like you come up with ideas, you're pitching new ideas you have ideas for, but you really you need all four, like all four are are so valuable you know, and and uh, yeah, it's just, it's interesting how just different people are wired.

It's amazing, yeah, so what's the craziest business that you've watched a pitch for? Come through your, come through your doors.

Okay, that's okay. My favorite one is from our first batch. It's called Stenco um, which stands for saving the earth. Now, um. He was in pharmaceutical sales and developed longterm drugs that could just release in the body Like Advil that you know takes a while to release that same technology he used.

He put his coffee in the morning and he had the little K cups and he put it in and he was like that is so much plastic that is just not getting recycled, not going anywhere. How can we figure out a better alternative for this plastic? Like use case, the long-term activation and the drug he took that was in his garage with like ever clear in one hand and like another thing in another hand and making some kind of chemist concoction? He's also from Alabama, so all this checks right, this checks.

Yeah, he's in like a meth trailer, like cooking stuff. That's basically.

I was like oh okay, rob White Like is it Rob?

White? Is that his name? Walter White?

Walter. White, I was like Rob doesn't sound right, but it sounds a little bit yeah yeah, he was basically breaking bad in his, in his little garage making this concoction what are those blue crystals you got there, buddy but he. So basically, what he takes is that is a, an additive that is added to cardboard or paper and it makes it as strong as plastic, but it biodegrades wow, which is really impressive so um think of your like styrofoam tray.

Styrofoam is really bad. It's not recyclable. Their goal is to have it withstand, but it can't have any oxygen in it because it can't break down. So you can't go to pick up your meat and have it break through because it's soggy. So you're trying to find a replacement for that. He actually just got acquired this year, so five years in from the idea he.

He actually just got acquired this year, so five years in from the idea he was able to work with a lot of our corporate partners and then, I got to go down to an Alabama football game and celebrate with him for getting acquired, which is really, really cool, but, like again, he was, you know, having these big conversations with Cargill about those like meat trays.

And he's like okay, I sprayed on the technology. Like I sprayed it on, it worked and it passed all their tests, he's like, but I want to make it better. He's like we need I need a way to like dry it faster. So we went to Home Depot, got like two rack trays, had a hairdryer attached to it and ran a conveyor belt through and I'm like this is like that's the kind of your brain just doesn't.

my brain doesn't work like that. Wow, Is he like an engineer type guy?

Yeah, like cool, yeah, just into that.

Are we allowed to know who acquired him?

Uh, Tarim. So they basically make the trays. And so his whole thing was he's the additive.

Wow, right, but he still had to go through a third party.

So sure yeah, think of an example this example, this and this is why it takes the whole ecosystem right, so like he's working with cargill cargill's like this is really great, we love it, but we don't make trays. We make meat right, but you need the tray to go and meet right, so then you have to work through another company.

So even if cargill loved it, they don't have the trays so you have to go through a supplier, so really his supplier but you gotta get strong-armed by cargill to change everything right.

But yeah, so it's a really cool partnership.

So then they just acquired it and were like hey, we'll do this whole thing yeah.

That's wild. So you're not being an entrepreneur, but you have an inside look into all of these entrepreneurs, their successes, their failures. What's one piece of advice that you would give to an entrepreneur trying to grow a business?

Reach out ask for help. I business, uh, reach out ask for help, I think so many of them are. So they've thought of it. They're really proud of their technology, but I think the more that you can ask, I think especially here in the Midwest. Everyone wants to help and sometimes they don't even know how to help. Um, especially if you are in one specific and ask outside of your, of your focus area you know, if you're a FinTech person, it doesn't matter. Anyone can do marketing. Anyone could do you?

know everyone's got connections with everything. So I think making sure that you are present and that that people aspect of it kind of gets lost a little bit because they are so heads down A lot of times you're working with founders and it this is their baby, this is their livelihood. And so they are head down focusing, and all of us could do this right.

I could sit at my desk and knock out my whole to-do list and not talk to a single person every single day right and still feel like I got a lot of things done totally but I think that human interaction and that, like your network, like your people are your network and the more outspurts that you have, you know, with me I want to be connected to as many people as possible because I want to make that connection and that Midwest hospitality of I don't know who can help you but or I can't help you, but I know who can help you Right and let me connect you and everyone wants the human nature part of us.

I was a psych major. Everyone wants to be that helper, so everyone wants to be that connection and so, even even if it's not me, I want to connect you to somebody else because I want to be that selfishly.

I want them to see the value in me connecting you right and knowing that I'm a value part of that value chain over here, feeling like you did something that was important and valuable. Yeah, so I always think like that, that human interaction is is lost a lot and I think all us like we should be getting coffee or lunch with friends and colleagues way more than we do. Right, we end up being like I need this business task and I need to ask this and not just like hey, how's life, Like where's this at?

And that always gets pushed back. So I think, especially when you're hyper focused and you know a lot of their runways are a year to two years out, Like they don't, they don't know if this thing is going to exist in five years and so they have to be heads down in tunnel vision. But if they can come up for air every now and then, and I think it'll be good for their soul, I think it's good for their connection and their ecosystem.

Yeah, yeah, that's great. So we were talking beforehand. Could we get into some of the stuff we talked about beforehand? Yeah, beforehand, could we get into some of the stuff we talked about beforehand? Yeah, yeah, let's go. You have a, because I have kind of a question at the end of this. I really want to ask you, but also it's very interesting, you were telling us about some pretty cool experiences that you've had outside of plug and play. Yeah, and you have a certain record, yeah, yeah, could you tell us about that?

Yeah, so my I always, always. You know, the icebreaker is like what's the one fun fact about you and I don't know, I used to play volleyball like that was kind of like my, always my, my go-to you played college volleyball.

I did, yeah, I did so which is cool?

I mean but it's nothing like. I don't know. It's not that fun. Well, it's like being left-handed. It's just what I did I don't know, I'm not left-handed but. But it's just a trait, right?

I don't know, I was good at volleyball and that was it?

I played left-handed volleyball, but now I actually get to have one, so now I always love that question.

So what's your fun?

fact, I have a Guinness Book of World Record.

What that is insane. That is insane.

Guinness World Record holder in the building markers over it. Like world record holder. Now we've held the suspense. Tell us what it is.

Yeah, so I lived in Nashville for four years previously before coming to Topeka, and while I was there I worked for the Academy of Country Music Awards and we put on the world's largest award show in AT&T Stadium in Dallas.

Wow, that's wild.

So I was a part of the planning committee. I was part of the ops execution. I worked with all of our corporate sponsors, so like in show moments and things like that. Um, so had a had a good time, but yeah, what does largest, most people there most? People there, yeah, so I should know the number.

But do you know ballpark number 90, something thousand. Wow, yeah, that's crazy To 90.

I don't remember it was one of those numbers.

So yeah a lot, a lot a lot at 18 T stadium, and so award shows are hard because you want it to be. People paid a lot of money to go there, Um, and so you're. You want them to have a great time, but what constitutes them as having a great time? You also have to have it. It live on tv and so like that is a whole different ball game and that doesn't do well for stadiums so like think about football. You've got the commentator. That is what you hear.

You don't hear the crowd noise but, we have to play live music that also sounds great. You can't blast people's ears out yeah but, you can't also make it sound terrible online for the viewers, because that's another audience that you want to capture yeah so yeah, we trucked in 19 loads, uh, of 18 wheel trailers with full of sound, and that was just like speakers speakers, microphones, all that so that hopefully it sounded good and it sounded great internally on tv.

It was awful all you could hear all the mics picked up, everyone singing their hearts out to George Strait while they were in there.

So the average person watching streaming online could only hear grandma singing.

Hear me. You don't want to hear me sing.

Country roads.

Stop.

I mean, what a cool experience though.

Such a cool experience and, like I said, that was, that was our. That was my fourth show that I had done Um, it used to be out in Vegas, but that was definitely a learning experience.

It's been cool, can you? Can you map out a little bit of your like progression? So you're.

I'm all over the map.

You're from Texas. You went to school in Rhode Island, you landed in Nashville. What were you doing in Nashville? Like you were putting on these huge events Like yeah.

I worked for the ACM, so I'm a yes person and I think a lot of my career path. If you tried to follow a dotted line, it's got ADD right, it's just here, there, it's everywhere. But the common denominator is I'm a people person and I'm a yes person. I think there's a lot of value in saying yes. I think you've got to be protective of your nose too, right.

But, so many things happen when you say yes and I think that that's kind of where it's gotten me it's like hey, do you want to leave Texas, leave everything you know and go play volleyball in the smallest state? That's really cold and really far away from home. Yes, right, and I've got you know, I just went back. I, yes, right Like, and I've got you know, I just went back. I've been gone for 12 years now but we just went back for a wedding and got to see all my teammates from all over the world.

Now that's cool. Um, from there it's like okay, what's your job? And I was like I don't know, I like people, I like people, things like events ended up putting myself out there. I flew to Nashville to do interviews. They, I didn't have a, I was living back home in Texas. Flew to Nashville I was like, hey, I'm in town, like I can do interviews whenever. Like yeah, just hit me up. Had three or four interviews and then ended up working. And they're like oh so do you live here?

And I'm like no, but I'm here. Yeah, like I'm here.

So got a great opportunity there.

That's cool.

I ended up learning how to say yes a lot there, because they didn't necessarily care if you came, which was a hard. That was really hard for me to transition to Topeka, but they didn't care.

Like you'd get invited to you know, dierks Bentley's number one release party and if you said yes you keep getting invited, but if you said no you kind of fall to the bottom of the list and not get invited back and they didn't really care if you showed up, they just wanted to pack the house and me being, you know, the bottom of the totem pole, I was like heck, yeah, I'm going to all these things that I can go to but you never knew what it was, and it was always last minute, and so I basically lived out of my car, and I still do. It's a habit that I haven't broken yet and I won't break with my kids now.

But um, your husband's like dude, like why do you have a ball gown? Why do you have a ball gown?

in the back of your car. I was like, what if somebody?

needs me to be at it.

He's like no one's going to need you to have a ball gown in Topeka.

Your suitcase is in your car. Should I be scared? What's going on? I'm not leaving. It's just how I live, but you just never knew.

It was like hey, we've got last minute concert tickets to the symphony. Who wants to go? I'm like my workout gears in my car, I can go.

Yeah.

It's funny.

But I became this yes, person. That's awesome and I needed to do that. And then when I came here I became a guest person, but I wouldn't always go to those things. And then people noticed when I was gone they're like hey, you didn't show up and I was like oh, oh, it matters.

Yeah.

Yeah, Well, you said you were going to be there and I was like oh, I don't want to be a slightly different than the Nashville. Oh, I see, right, like if you say you're going to be there. Yeah, I expect, like your name tags printed, and I want you there Like I'd never had a name tag before because they didn't care, right? They just wanted bodies and sees.

It didn't matter. If you say you're going to do this, I expect you there, and so it just came. That was a huge learning curve for me coming to Topeka.

Being an outspoken yes person. You've had to have seen yes man, right, yes, gosh, that's so funny. Have you seen that? Oh, it's so good, it is so good.

Yeah, I love it because, I'm honest, I'm kind of the same way, Like in college I had a friend tell me one time he like basically put a name to it and I didn't realize like, oh yeah, that is kind of how I am. And it was basically that he said he's like hey, you're generally not the one like instigating, like hey, let's all go do this, let's all go do this, but you're the first one to say, yeah, I'm going to go do that with you.

Yeah, and he's like that's all go do this. Let's all go to.

I'm like I'm in, let's do it, you know and it was just, it was such a helpful way to yeah, it's such a helpful way to live so see, I'm the other guy, I'm the guy who he's got all these ideas. I'm like we should do this, we should do this and then, yeah, we need guys like you to back up our ideas like hey, john, do you want to start a topeka podcast?

oh, like, and this is why it works. I'm in, this is why it works, yeah yeah, it's great, um, uh.

Well, I was gonna ask you uh, um, dang, oh, I was gonna. I was gonna say, uh, in the midwest they did one of the differences between, uh, you know what you're saying about, like, yes, and it does not, doesn't matter really if you show up. Uh, one of my pet peeves as a Midwesterner I've been in the Midwest since I was 12. So I'm basically a, you know, almost born and raised Midwesterner is, when I invite someone somewhere, the worst question that you can ask is well, who's going to be there?

Am I not enough?

Exactly, exactly You're like. Well, now you're uninvited, it doesn't matter anymore Like.

I don't even want you there Immediately blacklisted Exactly.

Yeah, Like that to me is like what gets you blacklisted from future invites, If you're ever like well, who's going to be there?

Eh, erased that's funny Erased from my phone, Like you don't exist anymore. 's going to be jeans and there's going to be ball gowns and I can't tell you but like the same event is going to have everywhere, from jeans and ball gowns, so just show up in whatever makes you feel comfortable. Yeah, exactly.

My least favorite response to that is the I'll let you know. It's like what do you mean? You're going to? Let me know what are you doing? Like, what are you got going on? Don't shop around what you can do that day. You want to be there or you don't want to be there.

I just had this happen to me last night. So today's Monday, on a Sunday night, I had a group of friends that were hanging out and there was like one friend who was like the last minute maybe, you know, like noncommittal, like all week we're texting about this thing and like would never respond. And then finally, last minute, it was like hey, I was going to come but I just realized I double booked so I can't go, and I was like, wait, you double booked but you're canceling ours.

Yeah, no, you cancel the other one, like why do you got to cancel ours?

Like I don't know if I'm going to invite you next time. You know like, so yeah, the Midwest. It is an interesting like learning curve, the Midwest hospitality.

The language you talked about the OAP earlier we had to prepare some of our startups that are coming in. We're actually hosting an event next Monday and we're having five startups come in and we had to tell them, like, like, no yes is different than yes no like yeah is different than yes, no like yeah yeah no right or no.

Yeah like no, yeah means yes yeah, yeah, no means no and that's funny.

Oh, do you uh actually on this? No, I wonder if is tell me if this is a thing or not. It might not be a thing, but I wonder, like, like it. It seems like small talk actually carries a lot of weight. Uh, in some circles, like, because it's like hey, I want to have some rapport with you.

Like so just being able to chat for a sec about not maybe the main reason we're here, but just like, hey, who are you, what do you not? Not even just like weather, small talk, but just like, hey, tell me about your life. And it's not like getting down to business. And so I wonder, have you, have you found that that plays into account in any like people that maybe aren't used to that? Or like, hey, I'm just here for business, You're like, well, actually you gotta like some of that matters.

I'm actually hosting an event for our startups and a lot of it is talking about that and again, their whole job is to knock down doors, sell their product like give the product. And they're so proud of it, and a lot of them. I'm like, listen, you got to dumb it down for us. One you got to.

I always tell them I'm like pitch to me, like I'm your grandma, like I need grandma's version, I need to be able to tell people what you do and using all these terms and scientific terms, like I have no idea, like what that means, um, but then the other thing we talk about is a lot of times whether you're investing, like we invest, in founders not necessarily technology. So like you could have the best technology, but if you aren't a good founder, you're not going to make it.

Yeah, we got to believe in you. Yeah, that's crazy. That's what Laura Grenier says on Shark Tank.

See I invest in the entrepreneur.

I'm like.

Laura and I would hit it off grade.

You invest in me, Lori.

So Plug and Play has 30 unicorns, which means that you are a billion dollar valuation, and of those 30, I think half of them are the same company that we invested in originally.

Wow.

Because they've pivoted and they've changed with the market, or they got a big corporate partner, and then they were able to do X, y, z. But, so many of them pivot and they, you know, find a different industry or a different application because of research that's been doing so. They are flexible enough and I think startups you know need to be more flexible. They like they come in at thinking like I'm an animal health startup Okay Well, can you be a packaging startup too, and reach other people.

Can this be applied to human health? Can this be applied to other? You know other facets of your business. Can you spin off one portion of it? But again it's hard cause it's chicken or the egg, but like they have to be laser focused because they only have so much time and so much runway left. But then they also need to be flexible enough to understand that like there might be applications out here that I myself have not thought of because it's not my forte.

Right, um, and that only comes from talking, yeah. So it's basically about, like, seizing the right opportunities, like, hey, if this is the opportunity, then let's be laser focused, but if this other, more valuable opportunity comes up, let's have the flexibility to adjust. Yeah, yeah.

And that's like where, like, mentorship comes in. You know, you see a lot of like, trusted advisors and you know making sure like, yes, the CTO and the CEO are laser focused, but you've got a sales no foul. You know. You see, you know new materials and packaging sustainability is always going to be a big thing. Ai is going to be a big thing where that can affect everyone.

You know, everyone is going to be affected by that, no matter your industry. But the thing that I love about the plug and play spot is that we do have all these 20 industries that fall under our umbrella so we are able to kind of see what are some trends that are in the agri-fintech space. You know, we created a whole new program called Seed for Growth for the Farm Credit Institute because it needed. It was not just ag tech, it was not just fintech, it was a specific kind of challenges that they were facing and we were able to kind of laser in and see that because we have our FinTech team working with them and we had me working with them and we're like, hey, let's not duplicate this, let's create something super custom for them.

And so that's on the corporate side, you know. So this we help the startups, yes, but we also help the corporate partners. So we act as their external team and go and I always say it's a lot like dating. They give us a, a, a tech problem, so they say, hey, we want sustainable packaging.

Packaging is always easy, cause I there's not a lot of technical terms, so I use packaging a lot. It's a lot more than packaging, but for the consumers and it's just easier to break down, um, we need biodegradable packaging that breaks down in seven days and is made in the U S. And they give us that, that statement. I'm like, okay, we go out and we find startups from all over the world that match that and can do that. So they aren't looking. So then our corporate partners know I'm not having to filter through startups that are just recyclable and not biodegradable or aren't made in the U S, and it cuts down their lead time and they know exactly what's going on. So it's a lot like dating, where it's like if you want tall, dark, handsome men that are lawyers in Topeka, kansas, you're going to have a few, but if you just want tall, dark, handsome men, yeah, we got plenty.

And so like what's a sweet spot of, like the ask needs to be too narrow but it can't be too far either. You still want them to be in Kansas, you still want them to be, you know, maybe even in Topeka. So you kind of set that radius of what, what they're looking for, and we go out and search for those startups and so that's a really cool thing, cause in the startups know like I'm exactly what this company needs and the company knows that too.

Wow, so okay, there's. How often do people do? How often do businesses come to you guys versus you find them because of a corporate partner needing something?

We find a lot of them, we search a lot. So we work a lot with universities and, just like ecosystem partners so like working through Pipeline and working through Nexus and a couple of other accelerator programs that are here in the state, they'll have technologies and we'll put them into our ecosystem and make sure that we know those startups too, even if they are sports tech or even if they, you know, are human performance and might not be. They might be supply chain. So we we really work to try and get as many of those in. But when we first launched, we launched an animal health which is very niche but it got very much branded this is animal health.

And a lot of people were like, well, I'm FinTech, like a lot of corporate partners are, like I'm FinTech, we can still work with them, we can still service them, just from our other verticals but we can still have that, that innovation happen right here in Topeka.

Wow.

I have a question and maybe we can switch over to Topeka a little bit who is the who's the biggest name entrepreneur that you've met, if you've met?

I guess I imagine you've kind of crossed paths. Yeah, yeah, Um, I'll take it back to you. I'm trying to think of who's like the biggest, the biggest name in the entrepreneurship world. Um, we got a tour of Nvidia.

Um, from their CEO which is kind of cool.

Um, we got to tour. Yeah, we got to. We get to tour. We're based out in Silicon Valley, so it's really fun to go out there and just see like the buzz that's happening there. And it's just crazy, cause you, as an outsider, you just know what's like. Oh my gosh, like that, coffee date's probably going to lead to something.

Like I know what's happening there Um but they always Silicon.

Valley always wear they always wear vests for some reason Like vests, are really big and like the like suit vests or sweater vests, like just open zip up vests are like just really big. They call it Silicon Valley smart. That's what they wear.

So again back to like what do you wear?

And they're like it's Silicon Valley, smart and I'm like I don't know what that means. You can't catch me in a vest.

Yeah, that's hilarious. Well, switch switching gears, maybe to Topeka. You've been in Topeka for 10 years 10 years, what. We usually say this towards the end, but I feel like you've seen a lot. What do you? What is something that you think Topeka is missing?

Confidence.

Okay, yeah, I was. I was even thinking more of businesses. Oh, but that's a but. That's a great answer. I didn't say that you haven't heard of the coffee shop called confidence, yeah, exactly sorry yeah, um, that's really funny. Well, let's get into that. What do you mean by that?

We I think a lot of Topeka has has been here, which is good, but they've never experienced or a lot of them have not experienced life outside of Topeka, and some of the same things happen in every other city like. Nashville. I think if you asked 90% of Topeka if they want to live somewhere, a lot of them would say Nashville. Or you'd be like, hey, you want to live in Nashville.

They're like, absolutely, you're still running into the same issues that you have here and some that you don't even have here, right Like so much of the city and the town are what you make of it, and I don't think that we we have this like little brother, little sister complex because we have Kansas City and not using Kansas City as like our have Kansas city and not using.

Kansas city as, like our like, to our favor, it's an hour away. In the big cities, in San Francisco, we have people drive an hour to work and back every single day and they are going 20 minutes, 20 miles, like. It truly takes miles or minutes here, which is we're super lucky for, but we act like it's you know, neptune, to go to Kansas city and we just roll our eyes and it's you know everything is happening there, like or hey, you can afford a house in Topeka, kansas, and you can also still go to dinner and the same night in Kansas city.

So like well we're lucky to have someone so close that has everything that we're missing.

And.

I don't think we utilize that to our, to our benefit. I don't think people realize that, because you know they've grown up here and an hour seems like a long drive, like coming from Texas, like my nearest middle school was 30 minutes away, Like it's just, things are just more spread out or it takes a long, a lot more time to get there.

So, instead of feeling the pressure to imitate or like. Oh, we need to be Lawrence or Kansas city, just hey, let Kansas City be what it is. Yeah.

They're our cool sister. That's great and we get to like, utilize our cool sister and utilize her closet for the cool clothes, but we still get to be ourselves.

That is a great metaphor.

Thanks, if you don't, I'm a metaphor kind of person, but yeah, like let's utilize her for her cool clothes and her cool closet, but let's utilize her for her cool clothes and her cool closet, but let's still be us.

Yeah.

And we have things to offer that they don't either.

Yeah.

Right, Like, and I have a lot because I grew up in Texas and then my mom's always asking when are you gonna move back? And I was like, have you seen the housing prices?

I'm not like the cost of living, and that's something that every big city is struggling with because the cost of living is so dang high and that is something that we have to our advantage and we do not use it Like you can afford a house and drive 30 minutes to lunch or dinner or shopping or whatever, but you can actually afford a house. That's one of the big reasons when Jake and I were dating like is it going to be Nashville, Is it going to be Topeka, and I was like, well, we'll never afford a house in.

Nashville.

You already have a house in Topeka. Like worst case scenario, we live in Kansas city and I drive like you drive in, and he always said he's like we can always live in Kansas city. And coming back to where I called it, topeka, I always thought I'd live in Kansas city, but why would I? I can now afford to go out and do all the things I can afford to travel because and I have a home- and you know, topeka has everything you need.

I think I think I've appreciated it a lot more as I've, as I've grown up, as I have kids and like I'm not going to the club every day I wasn't going to the club every day before that, but every other day, once a week at least.

Yeah, I have some clients who are, so I'm a realtor. So I have a very healthy appreciation for the real estate prices here compared to Kansas City and Lawrence. I have some clients who moved here from Texas, bought a home, are moving back to Texas four or five years later and it's very rare you'll see someone buy their second home that's smaller than their first home.

You know it's always. You're always kind of going up.

And they have no choice. They have to buy a smaller home in Texas and it's killing them Because they're like you know, we used to have two beds or two and a half bathrooms and now we have to go to buy a house with one and it's like, yeah, that's tough.

You live in that every single day and that, like that, affects you every single day. So like, yeah, we don't have clubs and we don't have some like as much shopping as Kansas city, but okay, like I, we don't have to. You've got Kansas City, you've got Lawrence, you've got this random communities, it's not four hours away.

God bless Western Kansas, because it's true, it's so true, yeah, yeah, spread out.

So I just think we lack that confidence in ourselves or that awareness of we are truly lucky to have this we talk about. Know we, we talk about the, the city. I that back to like my iceberg reference like there's a lot happening underneath our waters that I don't think people have preview to right you, you see some of the movement that are happening, but there's so much more happening that is not above water and not everyone needs to know that, but you can know about it here. That's one of the things I learned coming in. I really liked I love Nashville. It was great.

It was a small fish in a big pond. I love Topeka because I am a big fish in a small pond and I can make waves and I know the right people. I can get connected to them. People are wanting to talk to me. Like that doesn't happen everywhere and I think you know we a lot of times don't. We don't utilize that ourselves, um, and maybe we take it for granted or maybe we just don't realize it, cause it's all we've known. Um, but yeah, you can do anything in Topeka.

I agree, I agree a hundred percent. I use I like to say that Topeka is like the wild west, in the sense that like there's so much opportunity, there's like so many things that people are not doing that like you could do and I mean you know it's not necessarily gonna be easy, but like man, you will have a ton of resources and people encouraging you because no one's doing that thing you always gotta look for the helpers too, because the naysayers are out there.

Right, Topeka is also very negative and I think you know you don't want to sugarcoat it You've got a lot of people that think they know everything, or just keyboard warriors that want to complain about everything. And real change takes time, it takes effort and it takes a little bit of guts. Right Like you're going to have to make some. You're going to have to piss some people off, otherwise, you aren't doing it right.

And so there's gonna, but those naysayers are really loud and so I don't think that there is. It's not cool to love Topeka.

Right, and that's, and that's okay.

You know, lawrence has their own people where it's LFK and you've got Kansas city but you've got just some people saying pissed about what? They're doing with the world cup and the new airport.

And you know, they ended up loving it at the end, but the beginning it got a lot of pushback too yeah and so you have to be willing to hear out and like know that there's going to be a lot of those naysayers but, I think to get doesn't get enough credit, like when I um, this is probably about four years ago actually, probably about five years ago, because right before we got plug and play, I I worked at the city or at go to pika and we had a whole city meeting.

This was my first real time like seeing behind the scenes and like the meetings that were happening, and it was a planning committee on what the future of Topeka would look like, and I was a young girl, one of the only females definitely the youngest. I probably brought the age average down by at least 20 years. So I'm sitting there and everyone's talking and it was great to hear all their insights. But what I, what I liked the most was they were like we've been trying to do this and it hasn't worked. So, like Lindsay, what do you want to see?

Wow.

And I was like, oh, that's really cool. And so I was like, well, I was like Topeka needs to have FOMO, they need to have. People need to be like the fear of missing out of what's happening in Topeka, Like that's my dream, for Topeka is to kind of have that FOMO and they're like, oh my God, that's so good.

Yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right. And I texted my husband on the side and I was like I just said FOMO to a bunch of like politicians with white hair and he's like Lindsay, you gotta know your crowd, babe. Like that's not it.

They're like what does that mean? I did? I had to explain it.

And then they group was sharing out what they had learned and they stand up and they're like we need those mofos, like lindsey is talking about excuse I was like right letters, wrong order in a totally different meeting.

We've got plenty of mofos, we don't need any more logos like she's talking about. Oh, that's funny, that's hilarious.

What would you say is one of the biggest things holding young people back right now.

Uh Ooh, that's really good it. I think we want it to be easy and we want it to be obvious, and easy and obvious are two of the things that anything worth having is not. It's never going to be easy and it's never going to be obvious.

So good.

And I think we want it to like slap us in the face and be like here. Lindsay, this is what you need to do, and it won't be that Someone hands it to you and I think you know it's. You're never going to know if it's the right move or not. You're never going to know if it's the right step, but you're not going to go anywhere if you don't take that first step.

Like you have to keep moving, you have to make that move, even if it's wrong. You can always pivot, you can always go back, you can always do something else. But, like if you just let the, I feel like we just freeze sometimes because it we're nervous about like, well, what if that's not the right choice? Or what if? What if it could be this or it could be that? And we just get like that freeze and I feel like a lot of our generation, a lot of young people, are in that freeze or like, hey, I'm actually okay right now. Right, like I don't want to take the work and I get that too.

And it might not be your season.

It might not be that time, but like, if you want to make something work, it's going to, it's going to take that effort and you've got to do it. No one's going to do it for you. Um, and that's the hard part.

Yeah.

Cause I think I don't know. You see, older generations got a lot of handouts. Or we think so, right, they don't think so.

Right.

I think they got they got it.

They had it easy uphill in the snow both ways, both ways baby, both ways Like but it's it is.

It's that like that perception of well, I think you know, they just got, they had it easy, or it was easier to do it back then, and part of that might be true, but they also were probably dying to have technology that we have now readily available to do so.

I think that we don't know. We don't know the impact that we can have, and I think there's. I would love to see more people, younger people, in leadership positions or having that, that ability to have impact. But leadership, I mean, that is what you make of it, too right. Like everyone can be a leader I think most organizations. If you lead from the bottom up, you're probably the best organization ever, because you're actually the people that are doing the work or having the say.

Yeah, but yeah, having influence. Yeah, you want to hit rapid fire, absolutely.

Oh, I talk fast anyways.

Let's go. We got some rapid, rapid fires. What is a business that?

tapika is missing. That was my initial question.

Oh yeah, that was not my confidence. Um, I would love to see like a, a soul cycle or some kind of really cool community fitness like brand name. I think we've got mom pop things right which is great and there's a lot of like um. What do you call it? The? Freeway trampoline where you do all the pull-ups crazy jerk.

Oh, thank you, crossfit, yeah.

Um, you got the CrossFits, you've got some yoga classes, you've got that stuff and I think that's great, but like we don't necessarily have a cycling, we don't have something like that that can really build some of that community where people are sharing that inspiration.

So love it. Uh, what else do you have a favorite coffee shop? Uh circle has won me over it's uh, it's so.

Oh, look, yep just came from there um joy light actually was at our expo and they did a? Um coconut toasted latte and it was delicious. So, like their coffee, it's fire it's sweet, it's great, but yeah, uh, circle, circle, something special, like the, the rotating menu. Dialogue is always. It's always hard not to love dialogue because of. I've never had a bad day going into dialogue. You know, like you walk in and you're greeted, and the workers there just truly love what they do, and they're like I got paid today.

I'm like what are you going to buy, like ice cream?

I'm like hell yeah, brother, let's go like me too.

That's amazing use that free will we've got really good coffee shops here yeah, it's like when you're a kid and you're like when I'm an adult. I'm going to buy ice cream every day. It's like I could do that.

I'm an adult I forget that I could do that. I could do that. Uh, date night, yes, date night. You, you and your husband are going out. What are you doing? Where are you going?

Okay, uh, date night. I am an love asian food, so it's usually going for some asian. So either go to pad thai of some sort, so there. We usually try and cap it off um at one of the local breweries, um another as much as we can squeeze out.

Um no, we usually try and change it up because, coming from nashville, very much foodie and I would always try not to have yeah you got to rotate, you got to keep on, you got to keep them on rotation, um, and I always like to try and find the ones that I haven't been to in a while.

Okay, so yeah, I love it. How many potholes did you hit on the way here?

Um, I'm a terrible driver anyways, so probably I would probably hit a pothole even if it wasn't there. Um, that's always so funny the infrastructure and the the double-edged sword right Like you got the potholes, but then you have to shut down the road and have more orange cones around to fix the potholes.

And so I'm like both suck. Both suck.

Um yeah, I am a terrible driver anyway, so I'm hitting lots of cones.

My favorite pothole related thing is at 17th and Topeka. Diagonal from the Expo Center is this car shop and that strip of Topeka just to the south is the worst for potholes. It's like a rumble strip and the sign right on the corner of 17th and Topeka, just to the south, is the worst it is. It's like a rumble strip, it's just. And the sign right on the corner of 17th and Topeka is like hit a pothole. We do alignments. You couldn't have placed a more strategically placed you know, car place, brilliant, amazing.

Yeah, I was spoiled, though, like growing up in Texas. So we get the potholes because it's like super hot and then super cold and the air contracts and that's what makes the cracks and makes the holes and all this stuff. We don't have potholes, I don't think in texas right it's just hot, yeah, right, so like I didn't know. That was a thing. I'm like why are there so many piles, like? Well, you know how science works, lindsey and I'm like yeah, I forget.

I don't think most people, I don't think most people actually understand that and they just like to complain.

They just right and it's like it's just the reality of it.

Like you're going to live in Topeka, You're going to get them. There's nothing you can do about it. Guess what?

Kansas City also has potholes.

Yep.

Lawrence also has potholes, it's true, boston has pothole.

Like everywhere, has potholes.

Again, that's not their problem, right? I'm not saying that they have to, but you see a lot of people that one said that they were going to come to Topeka and never leave, or they couldn't wait to leave, and they never do. Or you see the boomerangs where they left, they experienced something else and they're like, oh okay. And they come back and they're like this is what it is.

It's the people that make it, you know if you've got a this.

That's what life is about is surround yourself with people you want to be around, and those people. If I could live in Alaska and I had good people, I'm sure I'd find something I liked about it.

You- couldn't pay me to go to Alaska now.

But if you make it, it is what you make it. And it's around the people, and if you've got a few restaurants here, great, do we have a ton? We could do better. Right, like it's the food chain capital of the world. We got all the local favorites, but then I realized it's because we are surrounded by really small communities that don't have any of those and all they have is mom and pop places and they come to Topeka for chilies.

Yeah.

And so, like that, put perspective on it. Cause I was like why do we have so many funny thing? When I first moved here they do like the best of Topeka lists.

Oh gosh, funny thing when I first moved here.

They do like the best of Topeka lists.

Oh gosh.

Olive.

Garden won fine dining of Topeka.

Not only was listed won.

And I had just moved from Nashville and I was like Are you sure it wasn't Big Biscuit?

That wasn't, yeah. This was 10 years ago.

Don't get us started.

I'm sitting there and. I'm like lovely date night Olive Garden best fine dining. So we have come a long way.

Yeah, yeah but taking somewhere nice like Olive.

Garden, they do have I mean never ending soup and salad.

Oh, a hundred percent. Uh, do you do any home projects?

Uh, we are not handy. I would love to be handy.

Okay, Well, we'll get your your answer on this then. Anyways.

Okay.

Home Depot Menards, lowe's.

Where do you want to go? Interesting? I always check out Menards first. Continue.

Tell us about how great Menards is.

I do.

As someone who's not handy.

As someone who's not handy. They have lots of other things at Menards that also spike my attention. They got a candy section yeah, they got a candy section.

Yeah, they got a candy section. You can get it anywhere you want.

It's basically Walmart, so it's always intriguing to me because I'm like ooh, there's other things. They always have that like 11% rebate. That's always going on at some point in time, will I ever send it in? Probably not.

So it doesn't even make sense for me either.

Then I probably go Home Depot, and I don't know why, but then lowe's is always my last. But the last thing I purchased was a washing and dryer from lowe's.

So there you go appliances are cheaper at lowe's all right, that's what I found out yeah, yeah um, what else we got? I think that's it. Where could people find you at if they want to find you or reach out, or yeah, um, we can link, we can like swipe up, you can do um, I've got socials, I, I've got emails.

I'm happy to connect, like again. I crave that human interaction. I think a lot of people do so, always happy to do lunches, coffees, whatever it is.

You're going to get all of our tens of followers reaching out about business ideas. Yeah.

That's totally fine, like if there's anything I can do to help.

Okay, spammed you with just the most bizarre business ideas. You're like what the heck is this guys? What is this?

we only have 10 listeners and two of them are right here. So, yeah, there's a third and our mom's.

Yeah, that's right, good um okay, wait, can I rapid fire?

you guys, yeah absolutely okay.

Um what last place you traveled?

oh, what is the last place I traveled? My memory is so terrible.

I went to Minnesota last week and I'm going to Antigua tomorrow.

Whoa, that was an easy one for me. Yeah, that was really easy.

I went to Arizona last year. Went to Florida.

Okay. When you go there, do you search out, like do you always drink at a coffee shop? Do you go out to eat at a place? Like, what's your favorite thing to do to explore the community and where do you find out? Do you ask chat, gpt? Do you go to Pinterest like TikTok?

I think if I'm going to go out to eat in a place, that's even if I'm going to Lawrence, like I refuse to eat anywhere that I've already eaten. Yep, Right there's no way I'm going to a chain when I'm in Florida.

Right no.

I'm going to honestly what I what I do. We did this on a bachelor trip. I went to uh, it was in the Ozarks is. We were golfing and we just asked the starter hey, we're going to go get lunch after this. Where should we go? That's awesome.

I love it.

Yep, yeah, uh, yeah, we family, and so it was the same thing. We we stayed in this really cool cabin in the woods for a week and we're trying to find, like the most local you know, coffee shops and brunch spots and um. So actually we met the owner of the Airbnb we're staying at and he was giving us the lay of the land. He's like hey, this is the best local brunch place. We went. It did not disappoint.

It's the same thing, the same thing. So like we're the same, like we don't want, we want to try to like experience the local life as much as possible you know the hiking trails and you know all those things.

So yeah, I, my parents aren't like that. I had to tell my mom we went out to eat last night in lawrence for, uh, one of my brother's birthdays, and she goes, I think we're gonna go to roadhouse and I'm like, no, we're not. Yeah, it's like how about we go somewhere we don't have in topeka? Yeah, exactly for them, it's easy they don't want to think about it, right they

just want to like. Let me just think of a crowd favorite. They don't want to do any searching, they know that it's a staple and it's going to be fine. But like yeah, I think that's the difference in the generations is yeah, I don't want that right, I know I already know that Been there, done that. Let's experience something else.

It's like the Office. Have you guys ever watched the Office back in the day? He goes to New York City and he wants to get local pizza, so he goes to Sbarro's. Yeah.

Any restaurant you go to, you're telling me you can't find something that you're going to enjoy. Maybe it's not your favorite, but it's part of the experience, right?

Yeah, for sure. Um okay, what's your favorite tchotchke? Like the little, like freebies that people hand out. What's the favorite tchotchke?

you've ever been given.

Oh my gosh, I'm coming up with hard ones, sorry, I mean, I don't know where that came from. I obviously have no notes what are?

um. Okay, I have an answer. I think it's not unique, but maybe tell me if this would count. But like notepads yeah, like with a business, you know logo on it. I use notepads all the time.

Okay, sticky notes, the bigger ones. I have a nine by like nine inch notepad that I use every day and I'm ripping things off, sticking it there or whenever someone calls me, I take notes as I'm writing, I use. I have like 10 or 11 different ones on my desk at all times. Okay, so I love a good notepad Fascinating.

Yeah, I mean, I'll say, I generally hate stuff like that.

Not notepads, but just like Chesky stuff.

Chesky stuff, yeah, because it's like it stays in the bag. It ends up on my counter for a month and then I end up like what is this?

Then you have kids and you give it to your kids. It's really good.

That's the thing. Our kids end up with free random stuff all the time. It's like what is this? Can we please throw this away? I think the clutter drives me insane, because it's already so cluttered with toys and books and all that kind of stuff. I don't know. I'm trying to think of something useful. I do use notepads, notebooks. I like to write with a pen and paper Koozies. Koozies are underrated for sure.

Always nice. I like to be clever, though Like I don't want just your logo, give me like a clever koozie.

Yeah.

Make me want to use it right.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

So you talked about home improvement projects. So you guys are handy, handier than us. I like to consider myself handy, okay, so what's your? What's your latest?

project. Oh man, what is I've been?

building a lot of stuff for my kids.

recently I have a six year old, a three year old and a 10 month old uh, all boys. And so I built. Uh, what did I build? I built I wanted to build like an outdoor pull-up bar, um, like one that you could actually like stretch all the way out, not like one of those doorway ones where you have to like lift your legs up so you don't hit the ground.

I don't have to lift my legs up and so so I got like a.

I got like a 12 foot beam, dug a hole, put it in the ground, concrete it in the ground and then I put like rock wall stuff you can attach rock wall stuff to a tree with like straps and then I attach, I like put the rock wall handholds up the beam itself. So there's like the beam, the tree and the bar. So my kids. And then I got one of those like pads like underneath so like the kids can climb up, climb across the bar and then if they fall on the pad, and then I got a zip line hung, the zip line.

So that was so like are you training your kids for american ninja warrior 100?

yeah, so like it's fun because they're like I can, like I can work out while they're out there just playing around and so I can. It's like a easy to do both and it's not like you know. You got free weights. It's like I don't necessarily want my three-year-old messing around with like a barbell or something, but I could do pull-ups and I have some kettlebells and things. So that was my latest project.

I'm just going to go ahead and say pass, okay, fair the last thing I paid for to be done we put a home gym in my garage.

That was fun paid for that.

I feel like this should be a factor in the Home Depot Menards conversation no absolutely not, oh, who does their own projects? Versus who pays for others.

And I ask my contractors where are you getting your stuff from? Menards, you a Menards guy and they're all Menards guys. I highly doubt that. Yeah, probably not.

Okay, last one as you can see, we have a strong debate about which is better yeah.

I want to know how that was read at first. We have a running tally. Yeah, who's winning?

Home Depot is probably still in the lead, but Menards was catching up.

Menards is catching up With your answer. Menards is catching up. My count is two for sure. Yeah, totally.

Totally.

For whatever reason.

Absolutely.

Best piece of advice In general. Yeah, that you've either been given or you've heard, or you've come across.

With no context. Yeah, it's a loaded question.

It is, it is. Well, it doesn't have to be. It can be about anything, so I'll get, I'll fill the air. One of it was about parenting and they were like you have to say no so many times. Don't say no just to say no. And that goes back to my yes thing. But like I feel like kids a lot of times are like mom, can we go outside and run around in sprinklers?

you're like no, babe, like just because it's more of annoyance for me right, and not because it's so good, it's not.

It's not because it's not safe, it's not because you know, of whatever it's, just because I am tired or it's not it's nothing to do with that, and so that's been on my mind a lot lately is like don't say no just because just because like especially with parenting. You have to say no so many times right but like if they want to do something and like they make you a kid again and so right, I've been trying to lean into that a little bit.

so good, yeah, so I actually I have one in that vein.

uh, when we had our first um, my aunt gave us just a great piece of advice Basically like I forget exactly how she said it, but it was basically like bring your kid along with you in your life, and so like don't just like go into a cave you know, which I think a lot of young parents are tempted to Like oh, we can't do that because our kid's nap time, or we can't go do that because our kid's bedtime is 5.45 pm you know, and you're like, just bring your kid along with you like yeah, include him, like go to your friend's house and bring your kids. It's okay, you know I mean the more kids you have, the harder that gets.

But generally speaking, you know, like, so our first we brought him everywhere like we would be hanging out with our friends and he would fall asleep in his car seat, um, and it was. I don't know if that's recommended, but it was just like, hey, we want him to be involved in our life and not like we don't just disappear into a cave and don't have friends anymore. I can't do anything and that was really helpful.

Yeah, that's really good.

Best piece of advice I ever heard. Probably what's most relevant in my life right now is consistency beats talent and if you do anything for a long enough if you do anything for a long enough uh, for long enough it'll be successful, and so, as long as you don't give up, I would like to test the limits of that.

Yeah, there's definitely limits of it honestly you know what was funny is?

uh, I was reading the book grit by angela duckworth one of my favorite books. It's kind of dry but I can sum that book up in consistency beats talent right and what's funny is I was actually talking to david callen, one of the co-owners, talking.

I don't know david, but I ran into him at the gym, was talking to him about what they're doing at the mall and he kind of was reiterating what that book was saying. And I was asking him you know how it's going, you know what does he think about it, all this good stuff? And he basically said well, he goes advisors, Excel isn't going anywhere and so as long as we just don't give up, it's going to be successful.

Yeah, and it was a really.

It wasn't like a cocky way of saying, it was just the reality of you know, as long as you don't give up like, it's gonna work right, you know it might, they might have to pivot, they might have to do something different, they might, you know, hit out of the park from day one.

But they're not going to give up and so it's going to work and so I think about that a lot, as I'm trying something and working through, like you know, delayed gratification on how I'm going to do this with you know, businesses or whatnot, and as long as I don't give up and, you know, willing to pivot and willing to work hard it's gonna work, it's just a matter of when.

I like that a lot. It really is. That's an incredible, incredible nugget for people cool.

Well, lindsay, thank you so much for joining us this has been awesome.