Dr. Katie Foster booked time with me out of the blue last spring (which never happens), and brought cookies and we shared a very enjoyable coffee and conversation. She was weeks away at the time from opening her business, Timnath Kids Dentistry, and was exploring the business community at large and curious about LoCo Think Tank. She’s not a member at LoCo - yet - but she’s our kind of people. When she can carve time away from a young business and two young children we’ll be ready to find a great chapter for her!
Before this conversation, I had no impression of what the world of a pediatric dentist would be like - but now I know it’s not so different from any other business, especially in health care. Exercise patience, show love, build a caring team - and most of the other stuff will come together! Katie grew up in the Reno, Nevada area, and she started playing the violin at an early age, and was also a competitive swimmer. She was inspired to be a dentist whilst still in grade school, and if you listen to this conversation, and you have young children - you’ll probably want her to be their dentist - just sayin’.
This episode is not a paid ad, even though it may seem that way - just a fun and open talk with a smart and fresh kid dentist - so I hope you enjoy, as I did, my conversation with Dr. Katie Foster.
The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/
Follow us to see what we're up to:
Facebook
Music By: A Brother's Fountain
Dr. Katie Foster booked time with me out of the blue last spring (which never happens), and brought cookies and we shared a very enjoyable coffee and conversation. She was weeks away at the time from opening her business, Timnath Kids Dentistry, and was exploring the business community at large and curious about LoCo Think Tank. She’s not a member at LoCo - yet - but she’s our kind of people. When she can carve time away from a young business and two young children we’ll be ready to find a great chapter for her!
Before this conversation, I had no impression of what the world of a pediatric dentist would be like - but now I know it’s not so different from any other business, especially in health care. Exercise patience, show love, build a caring team - and most of the other stuff will come together! Katie grew up in the Reno, Nevada area, and she started playing the violin at an early age, and was also a competitive swimmer. She was inspired to be a dentist whilst still in grade school, and if you listen to this conversation, and you have young children - you’ll probably want her to be their dentist - just sayin’.
This episode is not a paid ad, even though it may seem that way - just a fun and open talk with a smart and fresh kid dentist - so I hope you enjoy, as I did, my conversation with Dr. Katie Foster.
The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/
Follow us to see what we're up to:
Facebook
Music By: A Brother's Fountain
Dr. Katie Foster booked time with me out of the blue last spring, which never happens, and brought cookies, and we shared a very enjoyable coffee and conversation. She was weeks away at the time from opening her business, Timmoth Kids Dentistry, and was exploring the business community at large and curious about Loco Think Tank. She has not become a member of Loco Think Tank yet, but she's our kind of people. When she can carve out some time away from a young business and two young children, we'll be ready to find a great chapter for her. Before this conversation, I really had no impression of what the world of a pediatric dentist would be like. But now I know it's not so different from any other business, especially in healthcare. Exercise patience, show love, build a caring team, and most of the other stuff will come together. Katie grew up in the Reno, Nevada area, started playing the violin at an early age, and was a competitive swimmer through high school and college. She was inspired to be a dentist while still in grade school. And if you listen to this conversation and you have young children, you'll probably want her to be their dentist. Just saying. This episode is not a paid ad, even though it may seem that way, just a fun and open talk with a smart and fresh kid dentist. So I hope you enjoy, as I did, my conversation with Dr. Katie Foster. Yeah. You just like bury it deep down while your innards are just on fire. Yeah. Well, there's a lot to think about. Uh, there is. A lot of moving pieces. Yeah. For sure. Um, and, uh, here you are. Here I am. So, thanks for being here. Yeah. for having me. Um, I'll lead us in. Okay. Um, and then, uh, it's pretty straightforward from there. Okay. I'm here for it. Got cameras on. Okay. M m m m me. Set up a little straighter, my back's been sore lately. Um, I got the wine hidden under there if you want more, just let me know. We can take a break anytime. Okay, you got it. Alright. I'm good. Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. I'm honored today to be joined by Katie Foster. And Katie is the founder and owner and dentist at uh, Timnath Kids Dentistry. So, uh, I don't know almost anything about, like I, I know about dentists for me, my experience, which has been pretty much just teeth cleanings and stuff, but tell me about the, the art of kids dentistry. What makes it, what makes it so special? Different and unique and more for you. Yeah. You know, that's a, um, it's a big question to kind of unpack. There's layers to it, but kids are not. Adults, right? Like you can't talk to them the same way. They are not at that emotional state that we are at. They can't process it the same way. So we kind of have to meet them a little bit more. where they are at. I mean, I see from zero to 18. So a one year old is not the same as a 14 year old. They don't have, you know, the fears. They don't have the anxieties. Um, they don't have, you know, kind of those experiences to pull from. And so you treat a one year old totally different than you would the adult. the 14 year old. Yeah, they come in with no expectations, I suppose, the one year old. Yeah, and you know, sometimes those one year olds, they can be the easiest, sometimes they can be the hardest, you know? Um, I love pediatrics, though, because you can give them, um, I don't know, just kind of a shot to develop a healthy experience with a dentist. You know, they don't have to be our ages and terrified of the dentist. They can It's like a high leverage role in some ways. Yeah, yeah. Can create lifetime good dentist patients. Oh, a hundred percent. And so it's really cool when you can see that. Like I had a, a kid today, he was three. I saw him six months ago, and he would not look at me. He wouldn't get in the chair, crying, screaming, walking through the door. And he walked in today like he owned the place. And he just got up on the chair, he laid down, let us clean his teeth, let me look, we got to give him a balloon and stickers and all the things at the end. And you have a lifetime patient, you know, like you're a believer. So I'm here for it. Yeah, it's a pretty cool profession, actually. So yeah, cool. What, uh, I'm assuming you would probably serve a lot more smaller kids because people looking for a kid's dentist. Yeah. Like, and then over time, if people really like you, do you kick them out when they're 18? I do. Yeah. Yeah. Um, uh, kick them out when they're 18 or I tell them, you know, if they have more extensive dental needs earlier on and they have full permanent teeth, I send them kind of on their way. You know, before that. Right. Fair. So it just kind of depends on the situation. But most of the time, I let them graduate from high school so their parents don't have to worry about finding a new dentist and who takes their insurance. They might be moving away to college anyway, you've got to find a dentist there in that town. Yeah. So we kind of tidy things up, get their wisdom teeth out, make sure braces are done, make sure, you know, there's no cavities, then you send them off to, you know, college or wherever they're off to next without having any issues. And do Do you do braces or is that still orthodontist? I don't, yeah, I, I like to kind of stay in my lane and just do kind of the bread and butter pediatric dentistry. Um, so I refer out for orthodontics, I refer out for permanent teeth extractions, wisdom teeth, you know, things like that. So I just like to do the, basic pediatric dentistry. And you are, I guess you've got a small office. I haven't been down there, but is it kind of in that newer portion over by the brewery and stuff like that? So the brewery, yep, that, that's a little bit more West of where I'm at. So Timnath is growing rapidly. I'm sure you've probably seen like all the houses going up and carwash and there's a liquor store, there's a gas station, all these new things going in. Um, I'm off of. signal tree and harmony. There's a stoplight right there and it's really just kind of where like UC Health is, the little gyms over there. What else? That pediatrics? There's another dental office. So health and medical kind of a center. Yeah, it's kind of a little health and medical complex, but I'm on the corner. You cannot miss my signs. So um, yeah. And are you a. A one woman band? Do you have? Uh, yeah. Dental wise, yes. So I'm the only one that does the dentistry. Sure. I have three amazing women that, um, are my team members. So I have two dental assistants. Okay. And I have one patient coordinator who is up at the front. Okay. Wearing all of the hats right now. And, um. So you've kind of got two rooms with, Teeth cleanings and x rays and different things, kind of an experience. So I have five rooms. Oh wow. Why? Yeah. Because you'll grow into it? Yeah. So I'll grow into it. So right now I run out of three rooms. Um, I have two columns of patients and I see new patients every 40 minutes. Wow. Um, so pediatric dentistry is pretty rapid pace. Yeah. It's kind of a treadmill a little bit. Yep. Which I love. You know, like you're in and you're out. You can't keep a Kid in the chair for too long. So I really like that. I'm kind of fast paced myself. You can't keep me sitting for too long. So, um, yeah. So in that way, it's a lot like the experience at, uh, my dentist's office where my dentist comes in after, I mean, as far as the staffing and who does what. Exactly. Not too much different than that, right? No, not at all. It's just a little bit longer for you, you know, and um, different instruments and things. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, more tartar. But yes, very similar. Stuff like that. So I have, you know, an assistant who helps with the teeth cleaning and takes x rays and seats the patient for me and takes notes and does all of that. And I just get to come in and kind of swoop in for five, six minutes, do my exam, talk to the parent, the patient, and then I'm on to the next kiddo. So I've been blessed pretty much not having had a lot of trouble. dental stuff all my life. Um, is there a difference? Like do kids get teeth cleaned twice a year? X rays every. Two years or one year or whatever it is kind of the same routine or the difference is they're very similar So you see the dentist every six months same as you know, what we would do X rays kind of depends. So I usually like x rays once a year If they are like really low risk of getting cavities, I'll let them go a little bit longer. So maybe every 18 months Um, if we're watching a tooth, like a permanent tooth, I'm worried that it's going to get a big cavity or it has an early cavity. I might take x rays every six months, um, but it's very similar to, you know, like what general dentists will do. Yeah. Yeah. How, uh, how is it finding people in your industry? It's gotten better as far as like employment. Yeah. Yeah. It's gotten better. I think, um, I actually just hired my second assistant. She just started last week. Um, and it was not nearly as painful as when I hired my first assistant. So I hired my first assistant. Gosh. June. And I hired her early because I wanted to, I started in September and so I started kind of looking because I didn't just want a warm body, you know, like I wanted someone that like I really clicked with that. Did she have experience already? Wanted to be there? She did. She had some general dental experience. Um. Okay. And she was awesome. Like, I am so blessed to have her. Um, but it was You can say her name if you want to. Her name is Lily, and she is Lily's gonna die in that office with me, darn it. I like that mentality. Seriously, like, all the ladies that are with me, I'm like, And that's not a threat, right? You can't leave. No, that is a, I love you so hard, I want you to stay. And, um And they know that, you know, for me, that's a huge thing, but it was really hard to find them. I mean, I, I interviewed so many people. I mean, I spent hours and hours and hours at Starbucks, just like I did phone interviews first. I, you know, called references. I met them in person, you know, and nothing just, it didn't feel right. feel right. And I was, I honestly got a little stressed. So this go around was actually much easier. I only interviewed three people and the lady that I did hire, she just moved here from New Jersey. Um, does she talk funny? She doesn't. No, she's got a little bit of a cute accent. Actually. She said ma the other day. I was like, well, that's fine. That's the cutest thing I've ever heard. But nobody's like, hey, Jersey, come over to Wriggle Room. No, not yet. She's still kind of on her best behavior right now. She hasn't like really, you know, Get her drinking one time and you'll probably find some Jersey. Yes. I told her, I was like, I cuss and I do some things. I'm trying to like, you know, get her to lighten up a little bit, but she's still on her best behavior. Cool. I like it. And then who's your, uh, who's your front deskie? is her name. Or I guess appointment coordinator. Yeah. So I call her my patient coordinator. But she, again, she's amazing. She is very smart. She is totally capable. The girl is resourceful. Nice. Like, you drop her in. She had no experience in dentistry whatsoever. And she didn't tug on your dentist gown asking you questions every day for She did. But honestly, like, I would give her something to do and she would just do it. Dig in the world wide webs and books and reach out to people and she was so resourceful. Independent learner. I love that. Yes. And I mean you can't teach that. No. So that was amazing. Again, she's also going to die there with me and she's not allowed to leave until we are done at Timnath Kids Dentistry. So, but she's phenomenal. So I'm very blessed to have all three of them. Really cool. Yeah. It's kind of scary to grow from there, you know. What's the, uh, what's the vision from there? Will you next step, uh, So, um, I don't know if you're a third hygienist or a second dentist or like, what's your growth plan? Yeah, you know, I don't want another dentist. Really? I don't. I, um, I always thought I did. I thought like my personality, it's big and bold. I always thought I was going to be the guy that had, or the gal that had like five practices and big, big practices and hire people and, but I've worked in those practices and, yeah. It's not better. It was not for me. For the employees or the customers usually. Yeah, it's just, it's very different. You know, it's a different vibe. It's not as like boutique type of feel. I, I mean, I was seeing 50 to 60 patients every single day by myself and it was a lot. And what are you doing now as a full schedule? So right now I'm seeing about 20 as a full schedule. I think the sweet spot for me will probably be like 35 ish. Okay. Yeah. Um, and that'll feel not. Yeah, I mean, there were days you just go home and you want to stare at a blank wall. You're just like, Oh my goodness. And you have nothing left to give your people at home, you know? So I don't think I want that. I don't want this big machine because you have to feed the big machine. You know, if you have four dentists working for you, those four dentists need patients to fill their schedule so they can get paid on production and all of that. You know, you always have to be doing something to get new patients in the door. And I don't know. I just. I don't, I don't want that. Would you ever consider like a second location or something instead? I don't think so. I don't think a second location. I like where I'm at. Do you like Timnath? Do you want to be a part of that community for the next 30 years? I do. Yeah, I love where I am. Be the mayor someday, run for city council. No, no, no. Um, no, but I, I want to be a mom and a wife. First and foremost, and I think when you start kind of getting kind of overextended in those ways, it's really hard to do those things. Well, and even right now, like, I'm kind of struggling with that. You know, I'm struggling, like, spending a amazing amounts of time with my husband and making him feel loved and my kids knowing that I care and you know, It's early mornings and late nights and kind of all that stuff So I think if you start adding more and more and more and more Then it starts taking away from kind of those core people and core things that are important to me so i'm trying to just Have a good vision from here and see 10 years down the road and not let that get too foggy So then yeah Maybe just like maybe one more hygienist like you got these five rooms, right? Yes, so I will there will be more people and I'm able to run all five of those rooms by myself Really? And so I will be able to do all of that and I've done it well for the last six years and other places So So I'll be able to do that. I will hire more, um, hygienists and assistants and things like that. So my next step will be one new, another, um, assistant. And then I'll probably hire someone part time to do front desk, but I'm kind of thinking of doing that maybe virtually or, you know, work from home, something like that where they can answer the phones and kind of take that piece out of Emily's day, my front desk. Um, and then so she can just. Greet people as they walk in the door, so she can, you know, kind of work from home person. Could like, Try to spur demand a little bit. Hey, you missed your, you know, your two months or a month overdue on your last sign when she can do, you know, like schedule a new patient. She can do insurance verification. Sure. I mean, those alone are full time jobs right there, you know, and so right now, Emily is just wearing, like I said, all those hats and she's wearing them very well right now, but we're also not running at full speed either. So just trying to grow, I think. Mindfully of that, and, um, a lot of people that go into dentistry are females, you know, and so a lot of them have, like, as far as assistants, hygienist, front desk. Oh, as far as the staff especially, right? Yes, yeah. Dentists, not so much. Not that many dentists. Yeah, what's the percentage in, what, in your classes, uh, Yeah, dental school for me was 50 50, actually. It was? Yes. Okay. I know it's become a lot more popular for, for females. And pediatrics even more so, you know, and so it's a little bit higher there, but just for like staff and team members, it's pretty low. Like there's not a lot of males, especially pediatrics. I've never had my teeth cleaned or, you know, front desk or anything by a male, frankly. I'm pretty old. And most, most women don't. Parents don't want their kids to come in and have no offense. We love you dearly, but yeah, they don't want a male there. And it's already pretty scary. Yeah. Most kids don't want that either, you know? do you do the Twitter at all? I don't. Uh, there's a hilarious little video that Elon Musk shared the other day and it was like, uh, I forget where this starts. It doesn't start with, uh, it might be, it's not we're all racist now and then it's we're all this now and then we're all mental now, we're all on all these drugs and stuff like that. And then what's next? Uh huh. Everybody, it's the society has got a lot of, uh, challenges in the world today. That is very true. I see, uh, Ronna McDaniel lost her job at NBC today. Did you see that? I did not. You know what? I have been awful at, don't judge me, yes, so bad lately. No, it's good. Why would you want to be good at it? Well, I like to know what's going on. My husband is awesome about it, so he'll fill me in. The drama is just so funny. So, they hired, uh, Uh, the former head of the Republican National Committee, MBC did, to be, not like an anchor, just kind of like a spot person or whatever, and like, Their whole staff like was like, we can't have somebody like her to be on our team said Trump was not terrible one time Anyway, I digress But it's just hilarious like they were trying to actually do a quote unquote diversity hire a conservative voice in the NBC newsroom And then when they did it was like Yeah. So, I believe in, I believe in male discrimination. Honestly, I would definitely tip the scales toward a, toward a qualified woman in the workplace most of the time. We're pretty awesome, I'm not gonna lie. Um, so, what would you have people know about, um, Doing pediatric dentistry really well. Other, other than having frankly, a really good personality that makes kids comfortable. Yeah. And their parents comfortable. And that's honestly no hair men around. No, I think that's honestly it. Like, so my husband's an oral surgeon. Okay. We went to dental school together. Okay. Um, and we talk about like, I couldn't do what he does. Right. And, Mm-Hmm. he couldn't do what I do. And I'm always like, yes, you could, like the dentistry part is. Easy. It is the patient part. It's the management. It's the talking to the kid who's freaked out about you, who's asking if you're going to use needles, who's had to the mom who's freaked out about you. Yes, I mean I literally, I had a dad a few weeks ago who had to medicate himself before he came to his child's appointment, and his head was in between his legs the entire time. Yes. And so, it's, it's. It's not the dentistry that's hard, you know. And so when you're, it really isn't like you've practiced for hours and hours and hours. Um, but it's not, you know, I do the same six things as a pediatric dentist all day. Every day. General dentistry, I would say, is significantly harder because you're doing aesthetic stuff, you know, you're, you know, You're doing all of these big lengthy procedures, you know, that need to be nice. They need to stay in there for years on end and decades on end. And pediatric dentistry is like caps and different things, crowns, veneers. I mean, root canals, kind of all of that stuff. Yeah. Pediatric dentistry. Like after you have done it for as long as I have done it, I mean, that part is. It's, it's easy and it's fun. It's fun to just kind of be in your groove and do that and be able to joke around and you know, have fun. Yeah. Sing songs. A lot of cool relationships over time, I imagine. Yes, absolutely. That's like the best part of it, you know? Yeah, have that kind of vibrant office mentality. Yeah, totally. And you see these kids go from, again, zero to 18. I mean, I haven't been in practice that long, but you'll see, you know, then parents are having more babies and then they're bringing them in and, you know, you form these relationships with parents, which is pretty cool. So it's awesome. Um, what's an oral surgeon do? Oh gosh. Is it, they just come in for the hard cases that the dentist contract out for, kind of? Kind of. Yeah. So with my husband, he kind of does, again, like bread and butter oral surgery. So he does a lot of implants. Yeah. He does a lot of wisdom teeth, or third molars is kind of what we call them in the industry, but wisdom teeth. Um, so that's kind of the sweet spot for him. But he does a lot of pathology. You know, if you have like a weird cancerous growth in your mouth, he's the guy you go see. He takes it out, he sends it to the pathologist, he gets it back, he, you know, manages that. Interesting. Um. He actually takes call for the hospitals here. So he does, um, MCR and PVH. He does trauma call for them. Um, and so they share that with like oral surgeons, uh, plastics and ENTs. And so they kind of rotate who takes that call. So he gets to see the car accidents and the dog bites and gunshot wounds and trips and falls and drunk homeless people that, you know, fall off a bike or what, like he gets to go in and treat all of those people, which is pretty cool. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Like in an EMT like role, more than just their teeth. Oh yeah. So he, I mean with oral, so they're oral and facial surgeons. So they treat from head all the way up. I see. Or neck all the way up. I'm sorry. And so, I mean, yeah. They do all sorts of crazy stuff. Right. Somebody smashes their head through a car windshield because they're on meth. Yeah. Seriously. I'm sure it happens. It's wild. So the stories that you hear and the, you know, which is I, I'm like, I can't do it. I don't know how to do it because it's just like gross and gory. Yeah. No, thank you. Well, and you've got no fun jobs at all, really, like, they're all kind of bad. Uh, you know, it's like an attorney that has just, like, terrible clients, or. I don't know, I think he kind of, like, gets off on it a little bit. That's okay. He's like, you know, it's just like, gore, and like, you know, it's cool. Does he have his own practice, too, or is he with a team? Uh, so he is with one other surgeon. Okay. So he's at Reynolds Orland Facial Surgery, so they have three locations. So they're in Fort Collins, Loveland, and Greeley. So once you get. Grown and stabilized in your staff that we where you want to be in stuff. What are you gonna do for vacations like? Will you can you get temp dentists come in? Will people allow for that? You can I probably won't I'd probably just like close for the week or two weeks or whatever and I'm okay with that, you know, and I think like right now if I'm out, like I'm going to San Diego for a couple days for a friend's birthday party and I still pay for my staff to be there and they still work and they still come in and answer phones and they'll clean the office. They'll stock things. They'll, you know, do some marketing stuff for me. So I try to find just, I want them to be stable and have good hours and I don't want their schedule to be all kind of off kilter just because I'm out doing whatever. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that seems like the biggest weakness, not to not having a second dentist is. Yeah. Yeah. Would you ever consider like a semi retired or part timer dentist or something? Yeah. I mean, maybe down the road, but again, I get full. Yeah. Once I get full, potentially. Um, and that might change. Better be the right one though. It better be the right one. Yeah. You better know who's the boss. She's like Katie's husband, just kidding. Yeah, well, no, I think that if you do find the right fit, that it would actually be kind of a cool relationship. And then, yes, you could go and take vacation or, you know, you could share, like, I work three days and you work three days and we have, like, one that overlaps or, you know, something like that. So, yeah. You could work a little longer days, even. Yeah. Um, cause that, Would probably be convenient for a lot of people just run the kid over there after work or something. Yeah, a lot of people are actually starting to do that. Yeah, for that. More like, you know, early mornings, late nights, work through lunch. Like, just so that way they can accommodate more people, you know. Yeah, yeah. You know, working people. And just make it easier for people to go to the dentist. Like, that's your goal in some ways, right? Totally, totally, yeah. Um, what else would you have people know about? The trade like how many pediatric dentists are in Northern, Colorado, you know, do you know them all? I do It's growing actually I feel like in the last probably year we've had maybe four new people really Mm hmm. I mean, it's a very coveted place. Right? Like it's great for anyone, right? Yeah Probably quite competitive like not easy to pick up It's not. Get something off the ground? Well, it's not, it's not quite there yet. I feel like there are still some little pockets here and there where you, like Timnath was, you know, you look at the demographics of Timnath and how much it's growing. Everybody's got little kids. Yeah. It's just glowing on a demographic study, which is why. I'm there. You'll see a part of why I'm there. Um, I live there too, but yeah. And so then you look at other pockets and there's, you know, some openings, you know, here and there and a lot of growth and whatnot. So it's not totally saturated yet. And a lot of the people that are coming in, they are associates, so they're working for someone else. Sure. Um, so some of the bigger offices, you know, where they have four or five doctors, um, or multiple locations or, you know, whatever else. Um, do people choose dentists mostly from where they live? I'm kind of the closest pediatric dentist. I, I think so. I think a lot of it's that. I think another layer. Yeah, I think, I think it's that I get a lot of people because I can track all of my like referrals or where people put that they, you know, heard about us. And so most of it is driving by the office and seeing the signs and seeing something new and whatever else. It helps you justify that expensive rent, right? See? Um, yeah. And so we have, you know, great signage. So they see us that way. Honestly, most of my people come through social media. Oh. Um, that's something that I. I love doing, I didn't know I would love it, but I love, I love marketing, love the marketing part of it. It's so fun. And I think it was something that people weren't doing here, you know, and so, I mean, you'd have people on social media, you know, people have, I do a lot of Instagram, I do some Facebook, but it's mostly Instagram. Yeah. And are you the star? Like, you're talking about cases and stuff, are you involving your staff? Yes, I try to involve my staff a lot. Um, some of it's educational, some of it's just like silly, like us having a good time. Some of it's, you know, patients that post, like, pictures of their kids at the office and I just repost them. Yeah. Um, but I went from like, I don't know, 500 followers to almost 2, 000. What? Just in six months. six months. What? Yes. And so it truly, and like, I'm not kidding you, last month I had however many new patients, 40 of them were from social media. Wow. And that's crazy. I haven't heard somebody talk about a lot of success like that much on social media in a while. And it's fun. And honestly, like my staff. Are you paying them? Like the social media companies? You're not boosting posts or nothing? So I boost, I boost one video. Okay. It's an office that, um, or an office. It's a, a man who created it. His first name, gosh, Emily, um, Draghi's Oh, Josh. Josh. Yeah, Josh made a video for us, too. Okay, so Josh did my video. And he did a phenomenal job. And so I put that up on my Instagram, and then I put it on my website, whatever else, and that's the only one that I a slow drip boost on it. Yeah, and so I boost it every once in a while, like I just did again last night, and I do like 50 bucks for five days or something like that. Right, right. And then you get like seven new followers or, you know, like people that are like, oh my gosh, like I didn't know that you were in Timnith. Or three appointments, even better, right. Seriously. That's crazy. So it's actually been like really, and doesn't cost a ton, you know, like when I look at kind of the breakdown of all of my stuff, like marketing, I think for dental offices, what they tell you, it should actually be a pretty good chunk of your overhead. And I'm not, I'm not spending that much, you know, referrals and social love and stuff. And that's, you know, I hate to say it, but part of the charisma, the being a personality, building a culture that. You know, where your staff wants to participate in being part of this tinnitus kid's industry. And truly, like, I get people that apply for jobs probably once a week that will send me their resume and say, I saw you on social media. Are you hiring? Like, it looks like you have fun. It looks like you care. I think parents, they feel like they know me when they come in. Like, Oh my gosh, like I saw your whatever post, I saw how you brushed your own kid's teeth and now I do that for my own, you know, my family. And so it's pretty cool. I'm expecting you to share this podcast everywhere now so that we can get a little bump up in our numbers here. Let's do it. I like it. So, um, Yeah. Um, I feel like we talked a bit about dentistry and your business, your future plans. Should we jump in the time machine? Sure. Okay. Um, let's go to first grade. Yeah. Let's go. Where is young Katie in first grade? First grade. So I am, I'm from Reno, Nevada. Oh, okay. Yeah. I've been through Reno. Have you? Just once. Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me actually a lot of here. Like we're the same altitude. The mountains are not as close here. Yeah. So I'm from Reno. Um, Sparks actually, which is like a little suburb. Okay. You know, yeah. It kind of blends together. Um, yeah, I have a sister. Is there water around there? Like a river that comes through Reno or something? Yeah. The Truckee River. So we get all of our water from there. It flows from Lake Tahoe all the way down to Pyramid Lake. Mm hmm. Um, and my dad goes fly fishing there all the time. Okay. Like three days a week. Nice. So, yeah, so there's a bunch of water. Um, yeah, ish. So it's not like we, a lot of people think of Nevada and they're like, oh, big desert. That's lame. No. I mean, it's dry. Oh, for sure. It's very dry. Well, it's dry here, too. But at least we have horsetooth and pooter, right? But it's not like Vegas. I think everyone thinks of Vegas when they think of Nevada. Right. You know? Um, but it's not at all like that. So, set me the scene. Uh, what were your folks doing? Do you have a story? A bunch of siblings, anything like that? I do, yeah. So, my sister, I have an older sister. She is four years older. Her name is Summer. Um, and my parents, they've been married for 45 years this year, which is pretty cool. Yeah, so they're both pharmacists. They're retired now, living their best life. Do you want to mention their names too? Uh, Lauren and Beth. Lauren and Beth, and did they meet in pharmacy school? They didn't. My uncle is also a pharmacist. So they met through him. Um, and my dad saw my uncle and he's like, Ooh, I know what you look like. I don't know. I don't want to date your sister. And then he saw my mom. He's like, okay, change of mind. Um, no. So my mom was in pharmacy school and, um, after my dad was, so they didn't meet in pharmacy school. Yeah. And were they the owners, like, of a, of a, you know, pharmacy or they just work for Walgreens or whatever? Yeah, you know, my dad did kind of that. He was like the behind the counter, fill your prescription, um, type of pharmacist for his entire career. My mom was kind of a badass, actually. Okay. Really, like, she was the chief of pharmacy for the Veterans Hospital. Oh, wow. Um, and so she ran the entire inpatient and outpatient pharmacy for years. Wow. Um, she was the president of the State Board of Pharmacy for a while. Wow. She was just always very involved, very go getter. Um, well, and this is a little while ago too when you didn't see as many women taking those kind of power positions, right? Totally. And she definitely just took the bull by the horns and, yeah, and she's, I mean, same size as me. Like, she's a little bit taller, like 5'5 not big, you know, not big, blonde hair and just. She really is like, I want to be her when I grow up. So it was just you and your sister? It was just me and my sister. And so, um, yeah, we, how was that relationship four years older, it was kind of an awkward thing. Yeah. We were best friends, best friends. We, um, Not maybe always, but I think we hit this stage, defining moment, probably, um, we went to band camp together. We went to a music camp together for a month and it was back East. It was a Lutheran based music camp and we were roommates and, um, I wasn't supposed to be there because I wasn't old enough, but they let me, I played the violin growing up and so they let me like audition and they're like, okay, you're not that bad. Like come on. And so my parents. Flew us over to Val Preso, Indiana. Okay. And we set up shop for a month, and after that I feel like we were very, very close. Yeah. Um, so and what, how old were you at this time? I was going into 7th grade. Oh, okay. Very cool. Isn't that crazy? Were you a high achiever right from the start, like straight A's in 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, pretty much? Uh, no. No? I think I was a high achiever. Like, I always wanted to be good. So I swam since I was little. And so I was a competitive swimmer all through high school, all through college, um, violin since I was three. Wow. So I did all of those things. School wise, I mean, I I did enough, you know, I feel like in high school, it kind of hit me like, okay, you got to like, actually start to work a little bit can just like cruise on pure talent, you know, so high school, it kind of turned around. I mean, I always got good grades, but it wasn't like you weren't striving to be the best at the school stuff. Yeah, I was more. Yeah, I wanted it. Yeah, I wanted to go and be good at swimming. I wanted to be good at music. I still played a violin. Not often. I would probably hurt my parents heart to hear that, but I know they're always like, go pick up your violin, play it for your kids, and it just, it's hard to pick it back up again. Yeah, I imagine it's also like, man, I was better when I was 12. Totally. That I am now. Totally. That's annoying. Well, and my dad started playing the violin with me. Oh, wow. So, he, I think he always wanted to play the violin and, um, music was a big thing for us. So, like, when we were little, my parents were like, okay, you need to pick an instrument, and I wanted to play the drums. And my parents were like, oh, try it. Try again. So, um, my dad started taking music lessons with me and so we went every week for our violin lesson together and he would take his lesson first and I would take my lesson second and That's really cool. Yeah, it really was. And like, he would practice on his lunch break in his car. Wow. So, I feel like He kind of set the tone for that, you know, and he was passionate about it, and he wasn't that great like love him dearly But he tried so hard he could read music very well, but you know, he's older He's not like as agile as my nimble little fingers After like three lessons, you're like way ahead of him. Yeah, totally. And so but he still Yeah. And he stuck with it. And that was for me, like, I always think that that was such a cool thing about him. You know? Cause I just like badass too. Yeah, he seriously is. I'm like, he, I mean, could you a picture, like, picture a 50 year old man in his car on his lunch break out in front of the grocery store practicing his violin? I love it. Like, I'm a pharmacist. I dig it. So that was pretty cool. What did your family do? Like, did you, um, were you outdoorsy, hikey, campy, fishy? Did you go out? Go on tours, vacations. Yeah, we did vacations, um, fairly often. A lot of road trips. I mean, we would go to Hawaii and kind of do that. My family was all in California or Nevada. Okay. So we spent a lot of time over in Sacramento or, you know, just kind of. So you're a full west coaster kind of, like west of the Mississippi. Uh huh. Yeah. Um, you know, Tahoe was super close. So we'd go up to Tahoe. Um, we didn't ski a ton like my parents did. Growing up, we did a little bit. Yeah. Um, but we more, I mean, we Swim meets every single weekend. We know they were always driving us somewhere to get to a swim meet or and we're really like distance. We were a sprinter Uh, I did 100 butterfly so I was a butterflier and then I did that 200 im So that's all four of the strokes. OK, Yeah. I've seen that before. Yeah. So that was kind of where I live so not. I was like more mid distance and then I would sprint for butterfly but everything else was not, Not my forte. Yeah, fair enough. Do you still swim? Uh, I don't. Not much? I don't, no. I work out a lot. Yeah. Um, usually every day, but I don't swim. I kind of got out of that. It's harder to now, like, get to the pool, and then you're drenching wet, and you gotta go to work, so you gotta, you know, kind of the layers to it. Yeah, yeah. Um, so I Do you love swimming when you're in the water? I do. I do. I will tell you a very embarrassing story. I, well, maybe it's not that embarrassing, but the last summer, last summer, Olympics, we were in Utah and it was my husband and I and my parents and I went to Walmart and I bought myself a swim cap. and goggles, and I got in the pool, and I made my husband time me, and I swam 100 IM. Oh, cool. And so it was actually pretty fun, so I love it in those situations. How much slower were you from your high school times? Oh, I, it wasn't great, but. That's cool, though. Yeah, and then you're sore for like a week afterwards, you know? Yeah. Man, I played pickleball on Sunday afternoon with some friends, and it had been the first time in a while. Yeah. I was all sore. I felt like I played basketball. Uh huh. Yeah, I really can't bounce back from that sometimes. Just wait until you're about 20 years old. Um, so you knew you were going to be a dentist by the time you were getting ready to be done with high school? Or, uh, what was it? Yeah, you know, I was probably six, actually. Really? Yeah, I really was. Um, and I just, I loved my dentist. Like, loved them. I loved going. I loved the experience. They just made me feel good. Good. It was like a fun place to be. Yeah. Um, maybe The dentist itself? Himself or herself? Or the The whole thing. The office? The experience? Yeah, the whole thing. Like, it was it was a pediatric dentist. Okay. Um, I don't know. I just, I never had a cavity. So maybe that was a piece of it. Like I would just go for, get my teeth clean. You know, I did have a tooth extracted one time, but so I never had a bad experience. Um, everybody was just always so kind and in a good mood and cheerful. And, you know, so I truly was like six years old and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I was older and I wanted to be a dentist and that never changed. So it, you know, obviously like there were, I'm sure as I got older, I probably thought about other things or whatever, but truly that's all I wanted to do. And like, do you have to go to college for something else first and then go to dental college? Yeah. Or whatever? Yeah. You have to get like a BA in what, like biology or something? Yeah. It doesn't matter what you get your degree in. a political science? You totally can. Okay. Um, and so a lot of people actually. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. What a welfare program for the university system that is. Well, some people do, like, they go in, like, I think, what was another one? Um. Uh, philosophy. Right. Um, so a lot of people would do like philosophy or psychology or any, anything else and then you just have to do. I see psychology helping. Yeah. Or sociology I think would always be a really good one too. Um, but a lot of people would just not do biology. I just did straight up biology because you have to have prerequisites. So, in order to go to dental school, you check off everything. You pretty much check off all the prerequisites that you need with that. Yeah. Plus some, but then like, you know, if you were doing sociology, then you'd have to have whatever to fulfill that, you know, degree plus Some more of these anatomy things and different stuff. Yeah. Plus all those prerequisites. So, it's actually, you know. I think a little harder and roundabout way. And then what's, uh, and where was this by the way? Yeah, so I went to Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California. Is that like Northern California? It's Southern. Yeah. So it's kind of in between like Malibu and it sounds awful, I know, but Malibu and Santa Barbara. That doesn't sound awful. Uh, no, it doesn't at all. It was great. It's a little bit more inland. Um, it's kind of considered like the valley. That's the way people prefer. Yeah, so like where Westlake is, Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, it's all kind of lumped in together. Man, it's so crazy being around California. My wife and I were, uh, in San Diego, I guess, about this time last year, April, I think, and just, you know. Yeah. Driving around through some of the hills and valleys and regions around there, it's like, like everything's like packed full, like driving around Colorado, there's all these mountain slopes and stuff and they're just wide open, there's nothing anywhere and they're like halfway full. Totally. Yeah. It's a cool place. Yeah. I don't think I would ever raise a family there. I mean, it would be very difficult, but it's fun to go and visit. Yeah. For sure. Four years there was awesome. Yeah. Um, beautiful. I mean, not, there weren't very many bad days. It's usually like sunny, it smells good. And was your family like? Extra Lutheran? Is that why the Cal Lutheran thing after the Lutheran music camp and stuff? Yeah, so we are Lutheran. I was raised Lutheran. Um, my grandfather was a Lutheran minister. And, um, so that was kind of ingrained, you know, growing up. I looked at a bunch of different schools. I, um, looked to swim at different schools. Right. So I looked at Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount and places in Texas and things like that. Like a scholarship swimmer? Yeah. Okay. And, um I just, I don't know, I walked on to this campus and I was determined to not go there. Like my mom's like, let's just go look, and I walked on and I was like Damn it. Like, I I want to the place for me. Like, I pictured myself in these big, huge schools, you know, like I wanted a school of 20, 000. Right, in a city somewhere, with a city close by at least. And Cal Lutheran is 3, 000. Yeah. It might be more students now, but 3, 000, you know, like you could walk from like one end to the other in 10 minutes, you know, but it was just one of those like nagging feelings that I had. Like, no, this is the place. This is where you're going to go. You better accept it. We had a Concordia College across the road from North Dakota State where I went. Kind of a similar model. You know, there's, I think there's Lutheran colleges all over the country that are like that two, three, four thousand student population. Yeah. Yeah. They're not like, I don't know if that's considered small. I don't know. It, it felt small, but it was nice because you knew everybody, you know. Well, we have actually, uh, Jamestown University where I'm from is a, is a Lutheran seeded college as well. Yeah. So they are kind of all over. I think that they're more kind of Midwest ish. Yeah. But that's where, you know, a lot of Lutheran Yeah. That's where Lutheran people live. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so Cal Lutheran and there's one up in, where is that? I don't know, outside of Portland or something like that. Washington. A couple of West coast. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But I loved it. And I liked it. It was Division III. So I could still do all of my school and get good grades because I knew I was going to go to dental school by then. So that was like my top priority at the time. And then I could also still entertain, like I did orchestra. So I had a scholarship for orchestra and I could still do that and I could still take lessons. And you could still compete well without dentistry. Swimming 64 hours a week. Exactly. So then I could do all of those things and I could still graduate in four years with a good GPA. And so I was kind of, kind of forward thinking that maybe I was very mature of me in hindsight. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't surprise me. Yeah. It was, it was honestly awesome. I would not change that at all. And I loved it. So it was like super competitive to get into dental schools or yes, um, I think even more so now. Very competitive. Um, I applied to. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. I mean, I just applied kind of all over the place. Um, and you know, getting into dental school, it's, you have to have the GPA, you have to have the letters of recommendation, you have to have all of the extracurriculars, right? And then you have to take a DAT, which is your dental admissions test. So it's kind of like the MCAT, um, for medical school. Okay. Um, and so you have to have a certain score for that. Um, and so then you go and then you have to interview and you have to be somewhat normal for the most part and interview well and all of the things. Um, so I, I only got two interviews, which is crazy. Oh really? Which is crazy. Was your score good on your MCAT? Uh, it was okay. It wasn't great. And I think that's where, I know that's probably what happened, but it doesn't matter. I got in and it was awesome. So I went to UNLV. for dental school. Okay, which is in Vegas? In Vegas. Okay. Yeah. Which was cool because in state, um, You got that state or that, ah, city feel like you wanted, I got in state tuition, and I was yeah, in a big city and you know, all the things, it was a great dental school, I freaking loved it like it taught us so many cool things and I wouldn't change that for the world either, it was awesome. And did you already find your fellow before dental school or you found him there? No, yeah I found him there, yeah. Okay. So. We sat next to each other. So, uh, he always says like, that was the best assigned seat I ever had early on. Oh yeah. Like we probably the first day I was like, Oh, you're kind of cute. He was, he's super funny. Like, he's just like kind of a quirky personality, like so sweet, so kind, but just funny, like the stuff that comes out of his mouth and like, I like you. And so, um, I was very studious, so I put my earplugs in and I just get down to business and, you know, doing all the stuff in the lab and he's just talking to me like, Hey, what's up? Like, so we dated actually for probably three and a half years in dental school. And then I went to Texas for my residency for pediatrics and then he ended up in Oklahoma for his residency for oral surgery. That's part of kind of the. The deal when you're a doctor or a dentist or whatever, you kind of go somewhere for that part. Yeah, where we match is, yeah, kind of a, kind of a thing. So, I, um, yeah, we separated ways for a little while. We didn't date, well, for, I don't know, three, four years. You didn't date anybody else? I did, and he did. Oh, oh, okay. Yeah, so we, I, I didn't think we were going to circle back and end up married with two kids. But here we are. That's cool. And it worked out, yeah. So tell me about what's, Next for you, you said you went to, what did you say, Oklahoma? Uh, I went to, he went to Oklahoma, yeah. So I went to Baylor in Texas, um, and their dental school, all of that is in, um, not Waco, it's actually in Dallas. Okay. So I was in Dallas for two years, just doing all pediatrics. So I was at the children's hospital there. Oh, wow. Um, which was really cool because you see, I mean, healthy, wonderful kids. Were you already angling toward pediatrics? Pediatric dentistry? Okay. Yeah, so. regimental bit in the dental college. So you do four years of dental school. Okay. And you come out as a general dentist. Okay. So everybody leaves dental school, you, you can go out and practice as a general dentist. And then if you want to specialize, so if you want to be an oral surgeon, if you want to be a pediatric dentist, if you want to be root canal specialist, endodontics, whatever, you have to do oral dentistry. That's where the residency really comes in. I see. So you have to do that to be able to say, I am a pediatric dentist. And then after that you get your board certification. So then you get to call yourself a board certified pediatric dentist. Yeah. Um, so yeah, so it's a lot of school, but it was worth it. How would you contrast, uh, living in Las Vegas to living in Dallas? Oh, good question. Um, Vegas is weird, you know, and it really is like you could see someone walking down the street with a boa constrictor around their neck in a teeny tiny outfit, and you would not bat an eye, because that's just normal for Vegas, right? I mean, you have access to so many cool restaurants, you have access to cool shows, it's a very transient population, you know, it's a very interesting population. Right, right. Um. It was fun. It was fun while we were there, but I mean, we were in the thick of it. Like, you were at home studying most of the time. It's not like we lived on the strip, you know? Right, right. Like, we weren't totally It's a special occasion when you do anything like that. Yeah, and you didn't have any money either, you know? Right, right. So, you were just like student loan poor, and so when you could go out, you'd go to the local Thai restaurant down the street, and that was probably better than most other places. Right. It was probably amazing. But, um, yeah. So, that was, it was fun. It was fun for what it was You didn't really take full advantage of Vegas. No. But it was It was enough. Yeah. It was enough. And I think that we, yeah, I think you could probably get into a lot of trouble in Vegas, you know. I'm sure. A lot of people have. Yeah. So. I loved Dallas. I would move to Dallas again in a heartbeat. Really loved it. The people, they were my people. Like they were so nice. Like I would walk down the street and people would be like, hi, how are you? Can you believe this weather? I'm like, are you talking to me? So I loved it. Like it was just, I don't know, people would hug you all the time. You got kind of some Yeah, my hair got bigger and blonder, like, I freaking loved it. Um, good restaurants again, like, it was just a fun vibe, you know? And I lived kind of in the middle of everything, so I could walk out of my apartment and I could go walk down and, you know, go see a movie if I wanted, or go have a glass of wine with some friends, or, you know, it was just like a fun stage of life. And were you having, like, any problems? Phone calls or anything with your now husband? What's his name by the way? His name is Josh. Hi Josh. Yeah. He's awesome. So you're doing your Dallas thing. Occasionally dating boys. Yeah. Whatever single dentist, pediatric dentist residents do. Yep. Uh, what's after Dallas? I moved back to Reno, actually. Yeah. So I moved back to Reno. I started practicing in my childhood pediatric dental office. So it all kind of came full circle. Um, so I practiced there for a year. Um, and I lived in Reno for three years before we moved here. Okay. Um, so I was there for three years, Josh and I rekindled our love and we did long distance for about two years, actually. What was the rekindle? It was a text. He texted me and he reached out and I was like, all right, do you ever think about me? Yeah, kind of. I mean, no, he was just like, Hey, how are you? And I was like, what the heck? Um, it was, it was weird. Like I, it was totally crazy. And, um, I remember one day. So I told you I'm Lutheran and you know, I'm a very faith based person and I remember driving to work and And I was like, okay, if this is supposed to happen, like, I need a sign because I broke up with this guy years ago. Right? Like, we went our separate ways. We dated other people. Like, what the hell? And I'm not kidding you. 20 minutes later, he texts me and was like, Hey, I have a vacation coming up and I haven't had one in two years. Let's meet. And I was like, okay. I guess. Yeah. And so, yeah. And so we actually went wine tasting in California. We met for a weekend and hung out. It was. so much fun and after that I was like, all right, we're getting married. Like this is, this is it. That's pretty cool. It's funny. Well, my wife told her mom, like after our first or second date, she's like, he's the guy I'm going to marry. And it was just like, and I, you know, I was like, Whatever. You're cool. You know. Yeah. No, I wasn't. I was actually pretty spittin as well. Yeah. But, but I didn't feel in the same way. Yeah. Uh, but she's frankly more of a faith led person as well. Yeah. Yeah. It was just like a very interesting, I don't know. It was just weird. And I was living with my sister and her husband and their kids at the time. And they were cracking up. They're like, Katie, like you, you were just like struck down by a lightning bolt. You kind of have to go and listen. And let me see what it's all about. And I'm like, okay. And was it just like, by the end of that. weekend in wine country, or like, yeah, yeah, it's like, he was living where at this point? he was in Oklahoma. So he was finishing up his surgical residency. He still had like two full years left. Oh my, so he's got a little longer stretch Yeah, so oral surgeons go to school for four to six years after dental school. Oh wow! And so he was on, he had just finished his And so he was still, I mean, just grinding out. Is that depending on how much you got, like, education and residency? So you gotta do both things, or why? So you can choose two different tracks. So one track is you can go and you can get your M. D. after dental school. And so they come out as doctors, dentists, full on medical, yep. Full on medical, yep. Yep. And then you can choose the other route where you still do the same training, but you don't do the two years of medical school. Right. So he did the two years. dental side. He didn't go and get his MD. Um, he can still do all of the same things. Can I still call him doctor? You can still call him doctor. Dr. Josh. Dr. Josh. Hope I never have to see him in a professional capacity. That's right. He's a great guy though. Good bedside manner if you need a neurosurgeon. So you guys kind of make this decision to, to rekindle and Go somewhere else other than Reno and or Oklahoma. Is that kind of what how this shook out? Pretty much. I mean, we didn't have kids. Um, I did not love the job that I was in. And so even at this childhood place, it wasn't as good as you remember. It wasn't, um, different, different people had kind of owned it at this point. point and, um, just wasn't great. So I was like, Oh, go anywhere. I'll do it. You know, when I was so in love, I was just like, I don't care. Like I'll leave my whole family, all my aunts, uncles, sibling, all the things, and I didn't care. Um, tell me about the process of deciding, like. Where to go or whatever. Yeah. Like Right, because you guys are having phone calls all the time. Yeah. And whatever. Yeah. You know, I been together for a long weekends I suppose, and stuff like that, back and forth for, I mean, 30 something trips in one year. Oh gosh. Um, I would, every weekend I was like, okay, let's go and see Joe, Josh. Card miles. Yeah. Um, so, I don't know, he, he looked in Reno, like, I truly, I wanted to stay by my family more than anything. Um, but he looked and there just wasn't great opportunity. I wasn't in a position that I, yeah, I mean, I think he could have pieced something together, but I don't think that it was anything for him that he, that he wanted at the time. He didn't want to start his own business. He didn't want to go down that route. He didn't find anyone that felt like a good fit as far as like a business partner. Right, right. Um, so it just didn't make sense. And then for me, I was in a practice that I didn't necessarily love. So then it became, okay, do I start my own practice? Or, you know, do I stay here? Like, what do I do, you know? And so we just kind of sat down and we knew we wanted to be West Coast only. Um, we kind of looked at cities, like we wanted to be near an airport. Um, you know, we like to travel and I wanted to be able to go back and see my family and, you know, whatever else. So we went and looked in. Seattle. We went and looked in Northern Colorado or California. We came out here, we went to Portland. Um, we looked in Texas, actually, we looked in Oklahoma, Dallas. Yes. He was like, it's not going to be the same. Um, but seriously, so we looked everywhere. He found a job here that he really liked the guy that he would be working with. Um, we liked the area, obviously DIA is pretty darn close. Um, and we just. Decided. We were like, well, all right, let's just do it. And I mean, it's not as complex when you have kids either, you know? So it's like, okay, you just have the two of us and we were young and in love and, you know, about to get married. So we're like, screw it. And honestly, like you could move back if, you know, it wasn't a right fit either. And that landed you here when? Gosh, 2018. Okay. October of 2018. And so he had this job already kind of lined up and you were kind of. into the marketplace at that point? So I found a job before I moved out here, actually. So I worked for an office for five years. Um, and I just kind of knew I wanted to do my own thing. Um, you know, and if it worked out, it was great. You know, I loved the person that I worked with. Um, you share who that is? Uh, Jill. Shanka is her name. She's at Windsor Pediatric Dentistry. She's awesome. Yeah, and we, you know, we worked great together and we had a lot of similarities. We had a lot of differences, um, but that's good sometimes, you know? And, um, I just, I knew I always wanted to do my own thing. So she's probably kind of your favorite. friendly competitor at this point because she's Windsor Pediatric, your Timmoth Kids, right? Yes, yeah, and you know, she's got a big, she's got a very big office. She's got a couple doctors that work for her and um, so I'm not, you know, you're not threatening her yet. No, not at all. And um, I think, like, we have different kind of patient populations, too, based on insurance or based on, you know, I think, honestly, people like to stay in Timnath when they're from Timnath. Totally. People like to stay in Windsor Yeah, 100%. You know? I could never imagine leaving Windsor and going to Timnath for my kid's dentist or leaving Timnath to go to Windsor for my kid's dentist. But it's only like 10 minutes or so. Right. You know? It's really not that big of a deal. I'm just weird that way. I won't drive for a haircut either. See? See? So I don't know, but yeah, so I was there for five years. Um, I was there through COVID, which was crazy. I was there, um, we had two premature babies and so I was there through that, which was wild. I did. Yeah. Okay. So I had two babies, um, that were born at 32 weeks. So my son, how far are they supposed to go? Uh, 40. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. They're pretty small. Yeah. He was four pounds. Um, and then our daughter, same thing. So yeah, 32 weeks, four pounds. Yeah. Um, totally healthy, but they just apparently wanted to meet us early. Um, I think it's a me thing, not a them thing, but there's, you know, there's that. Yeah. Um. Well, it's better than 10 weeks too late. Yeah, exactly. See, that would be uncomfortable. 14 pound babies. That's right. Like what you'd rather have. I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, so we lived in the NICU for a while, so I was actually able to take kind of an extended maternity leave, which was really nice. Um, something you can't do when you're in practice by yourself. Right, right. So that was actually like a really cool gift that she gave me and that I was able to be sitting in a hospital with my premature babies, you know? Yeah. Um, when this, you said you kind of always wanted to do your own thing or the itch guts thing. stronger over time maybe, but what was that process like of like, are you writing business plans? You're doing market research. Are you thinking about, Oh, maybe Timnath, maybe severance would be something we should do. Yeah. I mean, honestly, it was, there was not like one, you know, distinct moment. I think it kind of started right before COVID. And I, I always wanted to be in Timnath. Always I would drive over there. We lived in Fort Collins and I would drive over there and I would just look. And there's not a ton over there. It's like you could flip an old house and make it like a cute little dental office or, you know, whatever. Um, and then I started looking in Loveland because there's not a ton of pediatric dentists in Loveland either. So I started looking there and I almost, um, kind of settled on a space in Loveland probably a week before COVID happened. And, um, Thank goodness I didn't because COVID happened. And so I, um, I was very grateful for that. So I, I had a business plan, you know, years ago, it was 2020, I'd had my business plan all written up and, you know, freshened it up with a new address, first demographics. And so I pulled all the demographics. I looked at all of that. I was working with, um, somebody that just did, you know, commercial real estate and he was dental specific commercial real estate and he's based out of Denver. He was awesome. And, um, He couldn't find anything in Timnath, and I just kept being like, no, I need something in Timnath, like, I want to be in Timnath. Had you moved to Timnath? Yeah, so we lived in Timnath. Already did. Uh huh, yeah, and I, I mean, there was nobody there, and the area, you could just watch the growth happen. Right. And so, two elementary schools, and no pediatric dentist. Um, so, yeah, I Yeah. I always, always wanted to be there. So I was doing, like, kind of dabbling, I guess, in, you know, kind of the development of the business. Like, I didn't know what it would be called, or my colors, or my logo, or anything like that. But I had kind of a basic sense of, you know, and I'd worked at multiple other offices. So you can kind of pull the good and the bad and the, Yeah, best practices from the best ones. Yeah, absolutely. That was like a cool gift that I never realized that I had for six plus years, you know? Talk to me about systems a little bit in the dentistry field. Like, you know. In small business, we all have like CRMs and we've got sometimes project management platforms and different, you know, ERP systems for bigger businesses. What do dentists do? Yeah. So kind of from a bigger perspective, I mean, we have patient management software, right? So industry specific, I imagine. Yeah, exactly. So there's multiple different ones. There's cloud based ones, there's server based ones. So we have that. And then there are patient engagement softwares. And so that manages like all of your text, all of your medical history, paperwork, um, all of that. Just contact stuff, send out blast reminders, schedule your appointment with Timmy. Uh huh. Exactly. Um, so those are kind of like the bigger things. And then like actually in office, I mean, we have, I got all sorts of typed up processes that are very specific. And I mean, Um, and so we try to use all of that time to put together training manuals, you know, for my next assistant that came in, or And is that all you, or are you involving your staff in it? I involve my staff a lot for that. Um, I had a lot of it done before, um, just kind of stuff that I could have done. Yeah. Um, but I like to involve them. I like them to have some of that Ownership and, you know, some of the autonomy, I like them to take that on themselves because when they're done, when they learn something about, you know, the process, I think a little bit more, um, but then they're able to teach somebody to like the next person that comes in, you know, and then they're kind of proud of it, you know? So it's, I think it's great. For the most part, we're pretty darn organized. I mean, we have a process for everything. I mean, we have, with pictures of how sterilization works and, you know, because with healthcare, you gotta keep everything very linear and very clean and, you know, all that. What's your biggest, uh, pain in the butt factor about your industry? Like, if you could change one thing to make it just less annoying. I think patient understanding, or for me, parent understanding, or, you know, just, I think there's a lot of Bad raps with dentistry and it's always, you know, something we just want your money or we're doing all these things We shouldn't be doing and you know, and that's not Like at least you would never I'm sure there's been people that have pulled teeth that didn't even need to be pulled Anywhere, right? Like you're gonna have somebody that is a chef. That is just not very good at being a chef You know, or you're gonna have a doctor somewhere. That is not a great doctor, you know But then you have the people who are good at dentistry Good and who are ethical and who are kind and loving and honest. And they, those are the people obviously that I see more of. And so I think, and there's a lot of just kind of miseducation too. Like it was like social media, love it, but also, you know, you get. Tick tock, putting out how to whiten your teeth with some crazy random thing. Yeah, or how to squat in apartments in New York or immigrate. Yes, and people think that that is like the number one way to get information these days, you know, and so you're getting all of this misinformation. Government needs to step in. See, TikTok, they're trying to get rid of it. I don't know about your Twitter, but, it's the same thing, we'll see. It's an interesting dynamic at play right now with the Supreme Court wing and kind of as we speak on that. Yes, yes. It'll be interesting to see the fallout of that. So I'm thinking we might be ready to go into the closing segments here with, uh, unless there's other things about your, your business journey that's really important to you. I guess one more question about, like. If you do it right, and probably you're gonna, um, Dennis can make a pretty good income. Do you have, like, thoughts of buying rental properties or investing in, or pay off the student loans first, probably, I guess is probably target number one as far as that goes? Yeah, student loans number one. Ten years of that and we'll talk about it. I drive an 05 Toyota 4Runner. And my husband drives a Toyota Corolla. You know, like, So we don't live this, like, luxurious, yeah, and honestly, I think even when we get to that point, I don't think that will ever be us. Like, I want to drive a nice car, I like to spend time with my family and go on fun vacations, eat nice dinner, drink nice wine, you know, things like that. Um, yeah. I don't know. I think my husband would probably answer it much differently because he's more like, I would love to have rental properties. I would love to have, you know, kind of all of those things. Um, but. You just want to make kids lives better. I do. And your parents lives easier. Like truly. Yes. A hundred percent. I would love to pay for my parents to go on a fun trip for a couple of weeks. I would love to, you know, like all of those cool things. So that would be much more where I would live rather than rent. And again, it's kind of, the plot thickens when you do all of that. You never know where you'll go really. Yeah. Well, I think we should take a two minute break, and then we will be back for the closing. Awesome. Once you fix your earring there. We are back all the way back. Um, faith, family politics is our mandatory conversation segments. Do you want to go in that order? Even you've talked about faith a little bit already. You want to jump in the family first? Whatever you want politics. I'm not great with, I don't seem like you're very interested. I mean, I'll listen. So, well, here's one. There's actually current events in, uh, your former hack, the, the swimming stuff. There's a lawsuit to try to get Leah Thomas, uh, removed from her medals and records as far as the women's swimming. Well, update me. Film me. I mean, I literally have Well, you know who Leah Thomas is, right? Yeah, but I've been, like, living over here in the Timothy's Dentistry, like, cave, so. Yeah, so just recently there's been a lawsuit of Riley Gaines and a few other people saying, Not only was this bullshit, but NCAA actually needs to make this right and like scrub this man's stuff off the record books and whatever and honor the places that other swimmers should have gotten. I don't know how it was going to break down, but Um, I do know that I think it's, well, so my, my most controversial joke was actually on that subject on this podcast. You want to hear it? No. You don't want to hear it? It's too scary. I don't. Okay, we'll move on. You can go listen to the WALL E, the WALL E and, uh Did you get in trouble for that joke? No! No, no, no. I don't have any listeners. If people listen to me all the way to the end, they're going to get pissed off about something. Okay. You think, oh, yeah, you're safe. If you don't laugh, then, then, then, you're right. We're doing something wrong. Um, so, what was it, oh, if you don't think Leah Thomas is the rightful women's NCAA Swimming champion? Then you can suck her dick. My husband will appreciate that. See, again, he updates me on all of these things. Like, as a woman, and as a power woman, a boss lady. No, it pisses me off. 100%. So we should just, like, not allow it, period? Or where do those people Swim then. That's a great question, and I, I don't have a great answer for that, but I, I think if you're putting a man into the pool with women, a man, you know, or a locker room, yeah, but I think that they're going to win most of the time, all of the time, you know, like just by pure testosterone. I mean, in swimming, you would beat me significantly because you have technique. But just power, right? Right, right, right. Like, I mean, just power. I'm confident that even though you work out a lot more than me, I could probably beat you up if my life depended on it. That is probably true. I don't want to have to, so don't make me. I don't know, I'm kind of scrappy, so. I believe it. I'm sure you can run faster than me too, so. That's probably true. You know, you get a good shot and you can just run. Um, but it's, I mean, honestly, I make light of it, but that's a scary thing, like. Like the Planet Fitness thing. You heard about that? No. You know, it has current events too. Sorry. So, where? Up in the Northwest somewhere. Okay. Um, a lady at Planet Fitness said, Hey, there's, you know, a naked intact male that identifies as a woman shaving in the Women's bathroom sink and it's making me very uncomfortable. Yeah, and they were like, well, um, We can go ahead and cancel your membership if you don't like it And planet fitness's like market capitalization is off like 400 million. They're getting bud lighted now You know, which is a Yeah. That's a big deal. Scary for them because was this their company policy? Was this, this one employee that was an activist, but it doesn't matter if you're, if you got Planet Fitness stock in your portfolio, you noticed it. So as someone who has a daughter, right? Like I thinking about my daughter walking into a locker room or what, you know, like, and she's not choosing that. Like it's just there, you know? So that, that's very hard. Um, you said that your, uh, your husband would appreciate that joke. Is he a more political, uh, inclined person or whatever? Yes. Yep. And you're kind of whatever you don't disagree with them hard, but totally just don't care that much. Yeah, truly. Um, and honestly, like, I think right now too, kind of the space I'm living in is like, I have a one year old. I have a three year old. I have a brand new business. I have, you know, like 2005. Yeah, like That's right. That's right. I got all sorts of stuff going on right now, and I don't know, I've been trying to fill my, my plate in my mind with positive things, you know? And so I try to, I mean, I'm on social media for my business stuff, but I try not to scroll through social media and constantly see all that stuff. I try not to read stuff that I can't control, you know? So I'm trying to Just have control over that, you know, and I'm not I honestly like I've never had a huge and maybe that's Um, I've never had a huge interest in politics, um, and my husband loves it. And so I let him. Yeah. Fair enough. One of my favorite questions, a stumper that I've been asking lately is, uh, who do you like for president in 2024? I can't answer. Kanye West. That's who I voted for in 2020. I don't think he's running this year. I think his name now is he. Uh, it's Ye, right? It's Ye. Yeah. Well, he's uh, there's kind of politics there, right? Like he's a some of his newest album, he says racist, anti semite, uh, bipolar. Uh, he mixes, he stirs the pot for sure. Oh yeah. He doesn't have much of a filter. He stirs, uh, no he does not. So, um, what do you say about Kanye, is he? An amazing artist. He was he. I love Kanye West. Old music. Okay. Truly love it. Like, I still listen to it. Have you listened to his new album? I have not. You need to. Yeah? Oh yeah. But Naked, Big Titty, Beautiful Women don't just fall out of the sky, you know. Uh, which is lifted from the movie Dogma. Okay. Uh, which could lead us back into Face. Oh my God. Okay. Oh, here we are. Here we are. Circle, circle back. Have you seen the movie Dogma? I have not. It's from like the Clerks, um You are probably going to judge me so hard, but I'm awful at movies too. Well, you've been like learning stuff your whole life 30s somewhere along the line. Office? Or what is it? I forget what the Jay and Silent Bob? Yes. Do you know who those guys are? I do know who they are. Okay, Dogma features Jay and Silent Bob. And Chris Rock comes falling out of the sky. Okay. Uh, and Uh, Jay had said, of course, cause Santa Bob doesn't say much, Jay said, well, uh, guys like us just don't fall in the sky, you know? And then Chris Rock comes like falling down to the ground and falls naked. He's a fallen angel, knows Jesus Christ from back in the day. Yep. And then the immediate response by, by Jay is, uh, Uh, butt naked beautiful woman. Big busted beautiful woman. Cause he's like, he said, guys like us don't just, and some dude just falls out of the sky and is like, Hey, let's, let's do this again. Anyway, that's, I hate to say it, but it's my favorite song. Is it? Yeah, cause I'm pretty sure he's talking about Kim Kardashian. I'll have to listen to it, probably. Probably is. But I do think that he is very talented. I think it's sad to see where he went from old Kanye into where he is now. He got off his meds, man. I mean, you get a little bit of, uh, complex with a little bit of bipolar action and you just never know where you're going to go. I know. It's just sad to watch and it's sad to see, you know, and he's got kids and he's got, you know, kind of all those things. So, but I do like him as an artist. Old Kanye. I love old Kanye music. You'll like the new Kanye too. Okay. I'll have to listen to it. We'll move on. Um, have you, uh, remained, uh, Luther? I have. You still go to the Lutheran Church? Is there one in Timmins? Uh, there's not. So we go to Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Collins. Okay, that's pretty south side Fort Collins there, right? Like, what, LeMay and something? Uh, it is Timberline and County Road, something. Something down there, yeah. It's past like Mormon Temple. Like, it's almost like Windsor, like heading out towards Windsor. Um, it's awesome. We've liked it. It's great for our kids. My son's going to start, uh, pre K there in September. So, yeah. So, yes. My wife and I got married in the, uh, St. John's Lutheran, I believe, uh, up here in Old Town. Yeah? Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We actually, I think my husband and I went there when we first moved here. So, he was not Lutheran. Okay. Um, he's non denominational Christian. Okay. That's how he was raised. Fair. Um, and so, a lot of overlap, right? But I feel like with Lutheran churches, less like, you It's a little bit more formal, yeah, old school hymns, actually, well, in some of the readings and stuff, they kind of have these rhymy things and whatever, yeah. And so a lot of kind of good history with that, but I think it attracts, um, depending on the church, it attracts usually like an older crowd, right? So with Redeemer, it's not that way. Like there are people who are a little bit older, but there's also a ton of people that are our age that are in similar life stages, you know, younger. And so we really like that with it. In my previous chapter of life, I was actually a financial person for Thrivant Financial. Okay. Yeah. Which has all the Lutherans. Oh yeah. We had many accounts growing up with it. Right? So I know, I've heard about the, you know, the Missouri Synod versus the Wisconsin Synod and some of that stuff. I don't really know much about it. Yeah. I remember my mom always had like a little Thrivant box that we would put, um, coins in. Oh, cool. Uh, all the time, like sitting in our kitchen and it was It's quite an organization, really. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Um. That's funny. Have you, like your husband's, uh, kind of the non denominational Christians, um, they have a moment where they're like, they accept Christ, right? They come to faith and usually are baptized later in life and stuff. Lutherans dunk you right away and then they just kind of assume you are unless you start smoking weed or, you know, whatever, having too many out of wedlock babies. Uh, is that like a, is there a decision point in your faith journey? Yeah. Totally. You know, I, no, I don't think there was like one moment. I think, um, I was always raised in that. So maybe that had a piece of it. Um, as I got older, I chose that. Like for me, there were like, when I, a lot of escape hatches on the way to here, right? Yeah, totally. And so I, I feel like I have this like, relationship with God where he's like my bestie, like I'll be driving in the car and I'm just like talking to him, like that's how I pray, you know, like some people it's very formal, it's very like, we have to be kneeling, we have to, yeah, and I just like talk to him, like he's just my best friend, you know, and so I've had moments over my life where I have felt him a Transcribed Right there. And like when I told you I made the decision to go to Cal Lutheran, like it was a moment that I could not ignore it. No, it were like the moment, like meeting my husband again, like, yes, like literally, and I have those moments that I'm like, I hear this voice, I have this feeling. And I don't think everyone experiences that. I know my husband's kind of the opposite. I know he like growing up, he was always kind of searching for that. Like, I want that best friend. I want that, you know, and, um, he would hear these people's stories kind of like mine, like, no, I feel this like huge presence. And, um, he never felt that. And so I, I think it was just a constant through my life where it was really hard for me to ever ignore. Even if I, And so I kind of held steadfast in that. Yeah. Does Josh come to Redeemer with you and kids then? He Does he have to convert? You have to become a Lutheran or do you just come if you want to come? Yeah. Um, yes. And so we have a lot of very similar beliefs. Sure. And so it's not like, you know, we are Well, Luther was the OG, right? Yeah. Like, he's the dude that, you Bang the 99 theses on the door. Yeah. And so, no, I mean, he would, I probably think he'd say he was Christian. I don't think he would say that he is Lutheran. Sure. I think he'd say I'm Christian. Um, but yeah, and I don't, it's not like I have to like pry him out of bed to go in the morning or anything like that. And so he definitely will, I mean, he goes to church with us all the time and. What would you say to, um, like, there's a whole bunch of people, you're kind of, as you would say, blessed, or you would say blessed, hopefully, to say you were raised in a Christian home and had this kind of consistent thing, what about those that either know nothing about it, nobody's ever talked about faith with them, or even worse, those that have been hurt by, uh, one of the many, many millions of hypocritical Christians, uh, in the world? Yeah, we actually have a lot of those in, uh, our family. Um, and that is a, that's a struggle for me. That's something where I want to grow in that to be able to speak, I think more freely of my faith and of, um, my love for Christ. And so I, I don't know, I think Um, praying about it, surrounding yourself with people and just kind of, um, I don't know, maybe going and experiencing that, you know, and kind of being like open to it, you know? And, um, we do have some, I mean, I have brothers in laws and sisters in laws and things like that that have been kind of shunned from the church or they've almost been, they've had some trauma around it, you know? Self shunned even or whatever. Yeah. And yeah, so from my side of things, like I, I kind of feel powerless in that, but I, I pray about it and I pray for them and I think there's a huge, huge, um, strength in prayer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, cool. Um, what do listeners do for Easter? Uh, people won't hear this before Easter, but uh, we're coming up on Good Friday is tomorrow. We need ham! No. Do you have like any sunrise service y things or traditions like that? There are, there are sunrise services. Um, we don't, I don't go to those. I didn't go to those growing up. Yeah. But they're, they do offer that. I think those are usually more kind of the traditional type of services. Um, whereas we tend to go to more of kind of the contemporary, you know, a little bit more upbeat and yeah, yeah, exactly. But, um, no, so we go and it's kind of your traditional service. It's a little bit more packed. Um, and then afterwards we usually just get together with our friends or family or, you know, who's ever around or what's that? Oh, we go and someone else has made the ham, so I'm bringing a side this year. The ham, the potatoes, all of that. It's not our family, but it's kind of, they've kind of adopted us. We've made some good friends here and they have family and so we get included in all of their stuff and they actually go to church with us, um, randomly, uh, not by, I mean, it was kind of a coincidence, but yeah, so we kind of get to do all that together. Uh, let's bounce it to family. Um, you've talked a fair bit about your, your parents, about Josh, uh, what would you like to lead with? You know, we haven't talked about my two little ones. Not much. Yeah. No. We do, uh, we do one word descriptions. Oh, gosh. For the children. How, uh, if you wouldn't mind giving a name, an age, and a one word description. Yeah. I'll let you out of here. Luke is three and a half. Okay. Um. Luke. Man, what's a good descriptor for Luke? Luke is kind of, he's, he's quirky. That's how I would describe him. He is. He's into bowling right now. Okay. And uh, he, he dabbles in all sorts of different eclectic things. Very focused on it when he does. Yeah, very focused. Um, and then Ella, she's one and a half and Ella is spirited. That girl has got. Her mom's sass. How many, uh, does she got some words and stuff at that age? Is that right? I feel like just in the last two weeks, she has been just chatting it up. She calls my husband by his first name. And so you'll hear her in her room in the morning, Josh, he's like, you've got to start, stop calling me. I'm like, I don't know what else to call you. Like, I'm not going to call you daddy. Yeah, exactly. You might like it, but like, yeah. Yeah. And so she's just like, Josh, you know, she just has him wrapped around her finger. It's so funny, but she is just watching. I think the difference in Luke developing and her developing, I don't know if it's boy versus girl. I don't know if it's first child versus second child. I don't know if it's just like their DNA. I don't know, but it's fun to watch. Oh my gosh, she cracks me up and she's going to give me a run for her money for my money for sure. So when you were talking about kind of this long distance love affair and figuring out where you're going to move together for the rest of your lives. Yeah. It was really obvious to me that at that moment in life you were like super smitten and super in love and super engaged. Yep. More so probably than when you kind of just, you know, Let it go after three and a half years of dating back in, uh, Thousand Oaks. Talk to me about that experience. Um, which piece of it? You know, just kind of that contrast. And maybe it was a very, uh, strong love relationship. there at first, but maybe you just weren't ready to have that would be maybe one of it. Yeah. I think I matured a lot. Um, uh, like dental school, I think you were just, you were in the trenches, you know, you were grinding it out. We were taking eight tests every week. We were, I'm not kidding, pulling all nighters. I got not enough time to follow. It was crazy. And I, I loved him. He had so many wonderful qualities. Like he is the kindest, um, just most thoughtful. Caring, wonderful man. He's so well rounded. He is the most intelligent man I have ever met. Like you guys would probably like get along, you need to meet him. He's awesome. Um, yes. And he, uh, he had so many wonderful qualities, but I just don't think I was, I don't think I appreciated him at that moment, you know? And for those years, like I think he was there. Three or four years of dating other douchebags would have made it easier. Totally. My grandma's like, where's that Josh guy? Bring him back. My grandma would be listening to this. Grandma's up in heaven, so, you know, it's fine. But she, she loved him. My mom loved him. My, like, everybody loved Josh. He's, he's just, he's very lovable. And so I just wasn't ready for that, you know? And so I think I matured. I think, yeah, I dated different people. I think he dated different people. I think, you know, we kind of came back to together as like better versions of ourselves. Yeah. Yeah. What would he say about like that conversation? Like was he kind of pining over you for this? Three or four years that you were separated? Yeah, he, he calls it the He finally built up the nerve to No, no, not at all. He calls it the dark times. He's always like, oh yeah, the dark times. Um, but I, I mean, I, I broke up with him and, um, just kind of moved on. Right, right. And he, he ended up dating other people and he was fine. I mean, he's a strong person. He would figure it out, you know. And I mean, he's handsome, he is But he didn't, he didn't Ever have a question about if he wanted to be with you in the same way? I don't think so. I mean, I'd like to say no. I don't know. I'm going to go home and ask him. Maybe. I'm sure he probably had his doubts after I dumped him. Right. Right. Um, but I, I think when we did it gently, you're like, listen, we're moving on. You're not that great. No, he was that great. I just, I was not. Yeah. He deserved better. Darn it. But I don't know, I don't actually, I don't think I've ever actually asked him that like pointed question. Um, or maybe I just kind of skirt around it and I like to assume that he just, you know, was thinking of me every day for those years. Talk about the extended family a little bit. You mentioned some, your sister of course, but brothers in laws and things, are they, are you guys the only clump that's here nearby? So it's just Josh and I and our kids that are here. My family's all in Reno. My dad is one of six and all of his brothers, sisters, so aunts, uncles, cousins, they are all in Reno. Oh, wow. Um, my mom is one of four and they are all in Sacramento. Okay. Um, and then Josh is actually from Fairbanks, Alaska. Oh, wow. So all of his family is still up there. His parents snowboard down in Florida. Okay. Um, he's got two siblings, um, and they are both married and they have their kiddos and they're all up in Fairbanks still. Yeah, very traditional families, uh, in comparison. I'm from North Dakota. Okay. Where people don't really move away from there either, you know, probably much like Fairbanks or Reno, it sounds like in some ways. Yeah. So they're all there. And I mean we're close. I feel like we're closer with my side of the family. Yeah. My parents come out and visit a ton. My sister and her. She's got two girls and her husband. Well, it's just a lot easier to visit from, you know, from Fairfax. I mean, that's exactly right. You know, and for us, we're kind of in this like stage of life where Time and money are not of abundance. So trying to like get up to Fairbanks and, you know, you have to stop in Seattle and then you get up to Fairbanks and it's a harsh way of living in the winter. You know, like we've done it before, before kids, um, summers are definitely more ideal, but it's just, it's hard. And you know, when you're kind of grinding out life right now, like it's hard to get up there, but we do talk to them and We FaceTime and we keep everybody up to, you know, up to date. But my family is definitely more, um, kind of present on that day to day. Like we FaceTime five times a day and all sorts of stuff. Are your folks retired now? They are. Yeah. How's that? How was that for them? Good. I think for my, for my family. I think for my dad, it's been very easy. He fly fishes. He ties all of his own flies. He is out at the river or the lake like every day. He can tinker or do this or that. Yeah, exactly. I think for my mom, she was operating at this level of such high intensity for so many years. Yeah. You kind of come off that high a little bit. And she's actually, she's done it very gracefully. She goes and she has a Bible study she goes to with a bunch of women. She goes and she has She invests herself. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, she's got my nieces that are there. And so she, you know, helps take them to school and, you know, hangs out with them. She's got her friends and, you know, kind of does her thing, works out and all of that. So they've actually handled it very gracefully. They travel a ton. They love to hang out together, which is the cutest thing ever. Right. Um, they live on a golf course. You said 45 years, Mary? 45 years. Wow. Yeah. But yeah, they live on a golf course, so every day they go out for a walk and they collect golf balls. So I'm not kidding. Sell them back to the golfers? They should. Like, I think my nieces should honestly, like, sit out there and, like, do a side hustle or just a hustle, you know, and sell back those golf balls. Like, so many of them. It's crazy. I hear, I heard somebody telling a story about their first lemonade stand and they were literally making like 1, 200 a month. with their moms. So they might, they might have a pretty lucrative. Honestly, like they're on, I think their house is like on the 14th hole or something like that. And golfers would pay if they've got some like four to six, eight year old girls out there, they would pay. Probably pro shop prices for those balls. And by the 14th hole, they're probably drunk. Right. So like, just sit out there, you know. Mister, one dollar a ball. They're probably like, oh yeah, that's my ball from last week or whatever. But it just snowed there a couple weeks ago. Oh wow. And the snow melted and they went out and they found 150 something golf clubs. So their garage is just Yeah, that could be college fun right there. a little card table with a little So yeah, so they do all sorts, they find ways to keep themselves very busy and entertained and they do a really good job with that. Well, according to my math. If you were gonna have another child for you and Josh, would it be time, or is that, you know, not gonna do it? Two preemies, you kind of tap out after that, yeah. And if they show up at 32 weeks, you're like, we can handle this. Like, you know, the second time around, we're like, okay, not a big deal. Like, Carleen's still at the NICU, she's got the, you know, whatever. Third one, I feel like it would be, you're kind of playing with fire. You know, at that point where you're like, maybe it's 28 weeks, maybe it's 29 weeks. So I don't, I think we're okay. And again, just the phase that we're in, like we're happy, you know, you sit at the kitchen table and you look around and you're like, okay, I think we're complete. Like we're good now. My brother has two, two girls and they're awesome. And in his case, it wasn't preemie. It was more just health challenges for, it's like, well, I would, I would I'd like to have more kids if I didn't think there was a chance my wife would die, you know, or, or, and it's just at some point, you know, it's just not, not, I don't know, it's not worth it, but like, I just can't put a price on it, but also pretty happy already. We're very happy. And I don't, I mean, honestly, it's kind of like man on man defense right now, right? No, the third one is a whole different thing. It's a different piece of puzzle. Like, you can't really travel. Like, right now I'm off on Mondays. So, I try to take him to Shields by myself, or the park, and you have two kids that are not, like, the three year old, he's kind of, he's capable now. He can, you know, do his thing down the slide, or whatever, but, like, honestly, they're just like. Yeah. Over there eating rocks, you just never know what you're going to get. So I think we're, we're good. We're happy with just those two little nuggets right now. And I think we'll forever be that way. Yeah. Anything else you'd like to mention? You know, I think we did a good job covering all the things, I appreciate you the local experiences, the final segment and that's the craziest experience of your lifetime. I know. trying to find something that you can share that your mom won't get upset by. I know. You know, it's so funny because I I feel like I'm a pretty, like, outgoing, like, and I'm sure there's something way back in the filing cabinet of my brain that I dig out. Um, really the, the one thing that sticks out to me, so Josh and I, we went to Cuba a couple years ago. Oh, okay. That's pretty crazy. It was crazy. I mean, especially a few years ago, it's less so lately. Yeah, so we went, it was twenty 17? Okay. And, Right after, not too long after it started becoming feasible. Yes. And so, I, I, it was always on my bucket list. And so he's like, hey, let's go somewhere. I have a couple days off from, you know, residency. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, cool, let's go to Cuba. And he was like, well, I was thinking more like, an all inclusive resort. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, but I always wanted to go. I just thought it was so cool. It's so cool. And it was something that was like, not my normal, you know, I don't know, I just kind of want to get out of my box a little bit, go before, like, I don't know, McDonald's took over. It got too spoiled, right? Yeah. And so we went, um, and you have to claim, you know, why you're going. So you have 10 different choices and it's like religious purposes, to visit family, to support the Cuban people, um, educational, you know, whatever. And so I just felt the whole time like I was doing something wrong, uh, you know. Which one did you check? We did support the Cuban people. Okay. Okay. Um, and so we stayed at an Airbnb. We don't know any Spanish at all. Right. Um, we stayed at Airbnbs. Uh, so you fly in, you get off the airplane, and it's just walls of people trying to convince you to get into their taxis, their cars, their whatever. And not, some of them do speak English, but like I was just like, Oh my gosh, I'm so overwhelmed, you know? And um, Josh has his phrase book. I mean, we look like tourists. Um, you read all of this stuff, like if you stay at an Airbnb, a lot of these people that will pick you up from the airport and drive you wherever, they'll stop at their friend's houses and try to get you to stay there as opposed to, and so this guy probably tried to stop three, four different times, you know, and he's trying to tell, you know, it was just, it was a little sketchy. So we finally get to this house. We stayed up some like rickety, gaudy, I don't know, windy staircase that, you know, it was actually really, really fun. Um, but we spent probably three days in Havana and then we took a taxi with some people from Spain to, um, kind of like the inner portion of Cuba and we got to roll cigars and smoke cigars from the tobacco plantations, which was so cool. We got to go and see the, um, coffee plantations. We got to ride horses and, and how was it? Like, was it fun? Was it expensive? Was it cheap? was Did you feel like you were in danger? No, I didn't. It was honestly, I felt very safe. Yeah. Like, I felt like if I was walking around California late at night, it was scarier than Cuba. Fair. Um, it was awesome. We had a great time. The food was okay. Yeah. You know, it wasn't like anything great, but like, it wasn't super expensive, um, everybody was very kind. Yeah. It was a weird place. type of beautiful where you look around and there's like chickens tied to chairs and weird green slime in the streets and these like dilapidated buildings that you're like, okay, but it was beautiful. Yeah. Um. Was it a lot of old cars? Yes. Like old 57 Chevys and different stuff like that. Oh yeah. Yeah. And so you could, like we actually, um, you could rent them or they're considered taxis, I guess. And the guy who drove us around, he spoke impeccable English. He was very well educated. His. parents sent him out of Cuba to go to Europe to be educated. And then he came back, his wife was a physician, um, and she made more, he made more money driving his taxi than she did being a physician. Um, I remember, and you're like, how much did a dentist make? Yeah, it was, it was crazy, but it was weird to see. It was really weird to see, you know, the way that they live. Um, when we were writing on the horses, and we were literally like smoking cigars, writing on horses, it was so fun. Um, and I remember looking around and they were all male horses. Like I'd see the horses peeing and I'm like, well, that one's a male and that one's a male. And I was asking our tour person, like, what's the deal? And he's like, Oh, the government regulates this. And so they regulate the horse. They regulate everything. You can't have a breeding horse because then you horses. And isn't that crazy? And so, um, it was just that, for me, was the moment where I was like, oh my gosh, like, okay. Right. Like it's just, it's wild. Yeah, we've decided upstream that you're not allowed to have more horses, just the number that you paid for and pay taxes on or whatever. Exactly. And so then you'd have these farmers that were farming, you know, Whatever it would be, like coffee. Right. And the government takes 98 percent of your crop. Like you are left with 2%. Wow. And yeah. And so it's just. government basically owns all the. Everything. Factors of production. And you get little pittance for doing the farming. Yeah, yeah. So it was interesting, but it was very, I felt safe. I think it was the craziest thing I've ever done just because it was very outside of. My normal. It wasn't going to an all inclusive resort in Mexico. Right, right. Or it wasn't going to San Diego or, you know, whatever else. it was. It was really cool. I would do it again. Do you have anything comparable on your bucket list? Uh, Thailand. I need to go to Thailand. I need to eat all the Thai food. I would do that too for sure. Oh my gosh. Thailand. I'd like to see Laos over there and some of that too. It would be so cool. I think that that's probably like next on the bucket list. I'd love to go, I mean Italy, it's not comparable to Thailand. I mean, totally different. I mean, totally different. Been to Italy. It's pretty awesome. It's so awesome. But I think Thailand would probably It's more crazy. Yeah. Absolutely. More different. Like eat the street food and Right, right. Maybe get a little tummy bug or two. Right, right. But yeah. So I think that's kind of next on, on the bucket list. Do you have any questions for me before we sign this thing off? Oh, gosh. I know I didn't prepare you for that question. You didn't prepare me for these questions. What's next on your list? What's kind of the biggest thing for your business coming up? As far as business coming up? Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, I guess I was thinking about travel coming up and so in, in May, Jill and I are taking the ambulance that I was showing you the, the wrap design for, and we're taking it on a national parks tour in Utah. It'll be wrapped by then, I believe. And uh, so, and I like, it wouldn't start today, the bat, it's got a battery drain that just like showed up somewhere. So I'm kind of sort, I've been driving it lately, trying to sort it out, make sure I can. Yeah. Go for it. 1, 500 mile tour or 2, 000 mile tour of Utah. Can you fix it yourself? Like, are you pretty handy when it comes to that or is it like, you gotta take a shot? Yeah, we've got a, uh, what you call that, um, triple A. Oh. I'm a farm kid, so I can fix some things, but, uh, I'm not very good at it. Both my, my father and my brother could fix it pretty much at any time, but I'm, I just hike up my skirt and stand on the road, look for a ride. Uh, no. Yeah. I love that. too. That's awesome. But so that, that's kind of, it's business and pleasure because it's a big loco think tank rap thing. Yeah, for sure. And how many days did you say? I think we're doing eight days, seven nights. So nice little tour. Yeah. Hopefully it doesn't get interrupted with breakdowns. Hopefully not. It changes. Can you sleep in it? Um, yes, we can sleep in it. It's got like, queen size bed, uh, in the game plan? Like, you guys are camping in this? Uh, mostly camping, and then we're, I'm actually buying a, uh, rack for my motorcycle to put on the back. Oh, cool. So, I've got a, a BMW kind of sport touring motorcycle that we'll bring along, and so we're gonna set up the camper for basically two nights in total. Three different places in Utah, and then we'll take a tour of the national parks with the, with the motorcycle and leave the camper kind of set up there at the place and then we can get deeper into places and yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's pretty. I'm pretty excited. And when do you leave for that? May 25th is our anniversary. So I think we leave like the 18th or 17th or something like that. So yeah, it should be fun. That's awesome. Thanks for being here, Katie. Oh, tell people where to find Timnath Kids Dentistry on Instagram, obviously. Yeah. Timnath Kids Dentistry is on. That's exactly what it is, Timnith Kids Dentistry, or www. timnithkids. com. Um, yeah, so, or just at my physical location. Come say hi. Look, come see me. Come check it out. Tell her you, uh, tell her you found out about her on the Loco Experience podcast, too. I'll get like a, what? Do I get a referral or anything like that? Uh, I don't know. Probably not, but maybe. We don't really have a system for that yet, but that's okay. That's right. Drop your name. Call me and say, Hey, Kurt, I got a customer from this podcast. I will. The first time I hear it, I'm going to be like, Yes! Awesome. I love it. Thanks, Katie. Appreciate it. Thank you.