 Welcome to this episode of Fort Worth Forward. I'm Michael Crane and I'm coming to you from Blank Co-Works Studios here in Fort Worth, Texas. I'm here with Bridget Mitchell. Tell us a little bit about this studio. Absolutely, glad to have you today. Thank you. We're Blank Co-Working Studio. We're a collaborative workspace and studio based in the heart of Fort Worth. We offer photo and video studios, professional camera equipment, private offices, flexible workspace, and a creative event venue. In fact, we also offer podcast equipment. So if you're looking for a home to film or record your new podcast did, come here. This is the place for you. Well, that works perfectly for this episode of Fort Worth Forward, where we have four podcasts that focus on Fort Worth. We have Mayor Mattie Parker in Go Time, Jamie Ice with His Stories with Soul, Brenton Payne in Fortitude, and EJ Carrion, 817. So let's go. Welcome to the show and now I'm honored to have the Mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, Mattie Parker with me to discuss her podcast and other things about Fort Worth. Welcome. Thanks, Michael, for having me. Appreciate it. Remember the first time we did this? Do you remember this during the campaign? Yes. On my front porch. That's right. So this is a lot more sophisticated. We appreciate it. That's right. We had handheld little Facebook and people were saying we couldn't hear you. We've really improved since then, haven't we? You've improved. I'm just a muslin along through it. Thank you for having me on your show. I appreciate it. No, you're welcome. This is really the idea we talked about during the campaign was communicating with citizens. I don't think that we did it and you as well didn't think we did it well enough so that our citizens knew what was going on. So I remember on the campaign having this conversation with you and I was like, do you know we have this whole studio and we don't really use it down the city and great staff. And you said, I want to do a podcast and you did it. So talk a little bit about your podcast, the idea, just about it in general. Well, first of all, we have to thank Bethany in my office who helped figure it out. She never done a podcast. I hadn't either, so we kind of did it together. And then we didn't know this either, but the City of Fort Worth Water Utility already had a podcast. And so we had two awesome staffers that stepped up to say, hey, we'd be willing to help you produce it. So we were able to keep it all in house at the City of Fort Worth. And the purpose really is our exploration. I know you share this too of how do you communicate to a growing city, almost a million people. Not everybody consumes their news the same way or what's public interest to them. And so the podcast was my way of trying to a connect Fort Worth with really interesting people in our city and also making sure we're sharing the important things that are going on at City Hall that we want to share about. So that's been the emphasis so far. And we've gotten really great feedback. And I have loved meeting really cool people in Fort Worth. They're doing interesting things to kind of get outside the box and say, hey, Fort Worth is about a multitude of different factors. Here are the people doing that work in our city. So. Well, yeah, you've done that. You've focused a lot on some of the things that we're doing, maybe the charter election, bond elections and those things. We've also brought in the La Crosse team. We've brought in the coach from there. You've recently had one of the police department. Yeah, yeah, Officer Bicinio. And then we had Lou Charles on who's coming up. And so the folks we've interviewed have really provided to me the things we're doing right in the city. And then also spurred my interest in maybe their followers are following them. They want to listen to the podcast because Lou Charles is awesome and he's this rising really hip hop artist in our city. But maybe it gets them a little more intrigued about the importance of what's happening in local government. Which you and I talk about a lot. Getting people more focused on those things. Well, and some of those guests too reach out to different communities that maybe we haven't touched. Absolutely. With the recent election, 5% of the population voted, which is miserable. Abysmal. And so maybe this then gets that out that why it is important to be engaged in local government. Yeah, I think so too. Well, and you know this better than most because you're now in elected office. It's hard to keep people interested in the things that are actually impacting their daily lives. And do so in a way that you communicate really efficiently. So we're still struggling with that too. It's not just podcast. And if people want to consume their news in a five second Instagram feed. Okay, we have to cater to that, right? Or a tweet that goes out. So I think it's important for us to continually, you know, try to change things and work with city staff as well on what works, what they're seeing across the city. And then for you to do this show, right? Some people really enjoy video content. And that's the only way they want to consume news. And they do so through social media. So you've tried to answer that as well. Yeah, I think there's all pockets. We have to meet people where they are. Yeah. And communicate with them. Who, you've named some guests you've had or there's some guests that you'd like to have and maybe we create that out of this. We're coming up. I want to interview Ross Perot, Jr. Okay. I think what he's created in Fort Worth as a legacy to his father and their continual success at Hillwood, Alliance Texas would be really interesting. And then I also want to interview one of our F-35 test pilots. Oh yeah. I kind of told Lucky, you just tell me who and when and what that would look like. Most of their stories are pretty fascinating about how they got to where they are today. I'm actually going to interview two neurosurgeon from THR in the next coming week, which I'm really excited about. Very different pathways to becoming doctors at THR, which is fantastic. And then I do want to interview more kids that are doing interesting and really amazing things in our city. We started that with Teach for America through a podcast series that we did interviewing students. And I got a lot out of that. And so I want to continue that as well. And I mentioned it because then you have young girls that are becoming teenagers. I know it's terrible, it's hard, right? But you can get them to a place where they're willing to be vulnerable and share their perspective on our world is so helpful to me as a leader because that's what you're doing this for, right? And trying to make decisions for them. And so that's kind of the next spot maybe in the next school year. I'll interview some kids. Well, if you can get my teenagers to be vulnerable. I bet I can. If I say you get to sell all the dirt on Michael, on your dad, they're going to sign it up for sure. And there's a live it out there for sure. All we should do is have Ainsley and Laney on. Oh my gosh, that's true. Our two six year olds, which are not well-behaved. And have no filter. No, unfortunately, that's true. Well, thanks for being here. I appreciate you. Appreciate the job you're doing. Yeah, you too. I know how hard it is and what you give up to and sacrifice to do it every day. Yes, same deal. Thanks, appreciate it. Okay, thank you. Bye, Crane. Hey, I'm here now with Jamie Ice with Sixth Avenue Storytelling, but really with his Stories with Soul podcasts. Jamie, welcome. Thank you. Glad to be here. Glad you're here. Always full of energy, always exciting. I'm happy to call you a friend and have you here today. I know, we've been friends for a while. We have, we have, we have. Friends, we've done some real estate deals together. Yeah, yeah. And I'm a Michael Crane fan. I love what you're doing. Oh my gosh. Doing it in the city, all you're doing great work. Thank you. Thanks, I appreciate it. Well, let's talk about your Stories with Soul, you and your partner put this together and tell us a little bit about it and what your hope is bringing this to the people. So one, I love podcasts. I'm kind of, podcast junkie have been kind of intrigued with it for a while. I've always wanted to do one for the past couple of years. It's been on my like, my bucket list of things to do. And when we, when we launched Sixth Avenue Storytelling, which is the marketing company we launched a couple of years ago, the whole point was how, how do we help small businesses? How do we foster entrepreneurship and make sort of the marketing piece easier? And as we've gotten to do that, it just had lots of fun conversations with entrepreneurs and founders and people who started small businesses and which really sort of birthed the idea of doing the Stories with Soul podcast. And so the hope here is, is as I think like there's two real ways you learn and grow as a business leader, as an entrepreneur, as someone who's trying to make an impact in the community. And I think the first is through trial and error. Right, right. Sometimes you have to fail. Sometimes you have to fail. Right, that's okay. And great lesson and it's just trying things and you learn the hard way. And the other way is by being in proximity with people who have gone before you. Right, sort of mentors to help and just sort of show the way. Mentors and so I have, I've been spared a lot of heartache by being in proximity to people who have given me advice. And I've also, if I had had more mentors, I think it would have saved me time and energy. So the thought behind this was, how do I take people in Fort Worth who have built incredible brands? Someone who has built something successful, a brand that we all know and love and give people proximity to that person. And so there's two kind of points of this. One is to highlight folks who have just done really neat things and built great brands and shine light on their story because there's people doing killer stuff in our city. The other part is giving people proximity to that person to hear from their wins and their lessons and their secrets and their tips. And just to, you know, not everybody gets to sit down and have a conversation with some of the folks. So you kind of facilitate that. You're having a conversation with them so other people can learn from their lessons. Exactly. And there's some people that I would love to sit down and have a conversation with. And now it's like, hey man, I got a podcast. That's an excuse to call and have them come. Yeah, there's a selfish piece of it too. But it's been like, man, just people doing killer stuff in our community. Yeah, give us some examples. Who would get surprised you or you knew but wanted to tell their story. Yeah, so we just wrapped season one and we had Lou Lambert who I'd actually never had a conversation with before, but I've been like a fan of her forever. Who's doing Paris coffee shop and has duches and has been a part of these cool hotels. Got to hear his story. John Bonnell kind of hearing his story and all he went through through COVID. We had Carrie Crow with Melt. We had Betsy Price on. And Betsy was an interesting podcast because I knew her. She was my brother's best friend's mom. Yeah, I listened to it. She used to drive it all around and beach trips and other things, right? I knew her as like as Philip's mom. And I was like, but how did she, then I knew her as like my mayor. But like, how did that happen? And so man, that was fun. Got to sit down with Abraham Alexander and Josh Weathers, a couple of great fours musicians. And Mark Istook, I listened to Mark Istook who's a news anchor. Yeah, just sort of how he got into the biz and came back to Fort Worth. So man, it was a ton of fun. Well, I think one of the most interesting was we sat down with Katie McFarland who's an influencer blogger. Probably the biggest, most successful influencer in Fort Worth, which is a crazy thing. There's like 300,000 people that follow her on Instagram. That's like the third of that population right there. So like how did you build that? So man, it was, it's been a lot of fun and the feedback's been really neat. We're gearing up for season two. We're gonna probably start recording that this summer. Great, any tidbits of people that you want to have on in season three? I have a bucket list in my head, but I haven't like asked people yet. Unless maybe if I said it here, then they're like morally obligated. You can create your own future by saying. Yeah, so I have a list of probably like 10 or 15 people that I'd like to have on the next season, but I haven't asked them yet. Okay, any theme for the next year or for that? You know, part, the main thing is like, have they built a brand? And that might mean a brand as a company or it might mean a brand as a politician or it might mean a brand as an artist. But they've built some sort of brand that people know and love and follow. And I try to rotate, like last, we had some chefs, we had some business folks, we had kind of people in different industries and I like bouncing around between those. And so, but it's all Fort Worth. Yeah, it's all like Fort Worth. Well, you know, I love Fort Worth and promoting Fort Worth. That's why we're here. That's why we're doing this. We're kind of doing the same. That drill down on soul. When you say call it stories with soul, what was the idea behind that? Like putting soul in that title? So, we use that phrase a lot at Six Avenue. We call, when we started Six Avenue Homes, we wanted to do real estate with soul. When we started Six Avenue Storytelling, which is our market company, we wanted to do marketing with soul. And so, when I use that phrase, which is kind of a cheesy fluffy phrase, but for me soul means two things. So, the first is when something has soul, it has a purpose. There's a mission, it's like bigger than you. There's a redemptive nature to it. When you put soul in something, it's like I care. There's a heart behind it. It's bigger than just money or the things. So, there's that element. And the second piece is, when something has soul, it makes you feel something. Like this building we're in is pretty cool. It's cool, huh? Yeah. You can feel a vibe. Like when you hear Leon Bridges sing, you get goosebumps because he has soul. That's right. And so, when we talk about putting soul into real estate, it's like, can we have a purpose? Can we have a mission? Can we create spaces that have soul? Can we play with putting soul into marketing? Can we make it just beyond just trying to sell things? And for stories with soul is the people we're interviewing, just every single one of them has a mission, has a purpose, has a bit, there's a why and a heart behind why they took this giant leap of faith and did all this hard work. And then also they've built really cool things that make you, you know, when you go and melt ice creams and, you know, see the yellow and you get like, you feel something. You feel something. You feel something. And so, that's what we mean by, that's cool. It's a cool thought. You mentioned a couple of times supporting and really helping small businesses flourish. And part of what you've done with Sixth Avenue Storytelling is trying to do that model. Yeah. You wanna talk a little bit about that and how that all fits together? I think, like, I've had kind of a wild, weird path. And I guess like- I've watched it and loved it the whole time. I know you've seen it. You're like, what do you do? And I'm like, I don't know. I do a lot. I would, now I would say I'm like an entrepreneur. Like I like starting things. I'm not great at finishing things, but I like starting. But I have become just over the years increasingly passionate about just entrepreneurship and help and specifically small business. I think small business is what makes a city special. Like when you go to Portland, you wanna go see the Portland coffee shops. And the point, like, you know, when you go to New York, you don't wanna go to Olive Garden or Sabaro, you want. So I'm passionate about small business. And all that being said, through the different mentors I've been a part of, I think the theme is like, is I've done music, I've done restaurants, I've done real estate. And I don't know that I'm great at any of those, but I love the business side of it. And so part of starting Sixth Avenue Storytelling was could I take all the things that I've learned in marketing and how I've grown these brands and grown these businesses and give people a playbook that would make it easier? Because I think that's kind of, my superpower is like, how do I get people excited about a brand? And so a lot of it is just, here's all my trial and error, and let me spare you my 15 years of heartache. And if I can give businesses, here's a blueprint for how you do marketing. And I also think the best marketing is storytelling. Sure, when you lead with a story versus saying, come by this thing, come by this thing. Which is like advertising is kind of what I think of. And so you're not really connecting with people when you do that. That's the idea is connected in some way. So that was the heart of Sixth Avenue Storytelling was could we specifically help small businesses market and grow their brands easier using the power of story? It's great. Well, I have a focus and a love for small businesses too. And we're starting. I know that's what we've been up over the years. We're starting this from the government perspective, the small business task force, which I'll talk about on another episode. But really it's about how do we make it easier from a government perspective for small businesses to thrive? We tend to put a one size fits all on small businesses and act like they're a big corporation, but they're not. They want it to be easier for people like you and other people to sort of operate and be entrepreneurial and thrive. So I'm excited for that. I've heard they'll talk about it. I think it's neat that you're putting resources and time into that. Well, it's important when you look at it, small businesses really do make a city thrive. And it's what makes it interesting. Like it literally gives it soul. It's what gives it soul. Well, thanks again for being on here. I really appreciate you, Jamie. I appreciate all that you're doing for the city. And I think you've got a concert coming up, Green River Ordinance, right? It's sold out in the first few hours. Yes, we haven't played like a public ticketed show in like four years. And we kind of put the band on hold a few years back, but we're doing a reunion concert. There you go. We announced it last week and it sold out in like 12 hours. Wow. And it's at the new Tana Hills Tavern. Okay. It's in the new music venue and is that down in the New Alley, which is another, it's a small business. It's a cool, it's a very local thing. And so we're playing doing that in October. It's going to be fun. Cool. Well, I hope to make it out. Good to see you. Thanks for being here. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Thank you. And now my next guest is Brenton Payne, who has a podcast Fortitude on Rock So Media House. Welcome. Thanks. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm holding up, you know, getting through the spring business. Yes. Kids out of school. I don't know what it is. All in spring they just pedal to the metal on the, you know, the schedule. You got a schedule left for the summer because of that. Oh yeah. For sure. It never ends. We love busy lives. Yeah. Thanks for having me. No, you're welcome. You're welcome. Thanks for being here and talk a little bit about Fortitude. Tell us about it. How did it come about? What was the idea behind it? So J.W. and I, Wilson and sorry, he couldn't be here today. We had talked a lot about just all different kinds of things and we had done some stuff before. And then, you know, during COVID we had been talking more and more and then the, you know, right out of COVID was the mayoral race and a lot of city council races. And I thought, geez, you know, there's got to be a better way for these candidates to just kind of show who they are without putting them together. I remember going to a mayoral was when Betsy was running against ever and I had seen it a lot in the state legislature and stuff. You get these folks on stage and they're not really themselves. You know, there's a lot going on. There's an audience. There's your other, you know, campaign opponent there. And I thought, how can we do this? So that's really kind of where it started. And then through J.W.'s connections and some of my own, we were able to just kind of fill it out with just a lot more. And it kind of meandered and, you know, as you smile. As things do. Yes, yes. As things just meandered. You say, rent me and what? You know, so, yeah, but it's just, it's been really nice. And like we've approached it in very different manners, which causes its own little strife at times. But for the most part, it works really well. Like his structure is not mine and the way he likes to plan is fine. Y'all make fun of each other? For sure, all the time. Yeah, I mean, we were just laughing beforehand. And as we were, you were really laughing and I was really laughing. I mean, the humor thing, you gotta, you have to go with it. In this day and age, there's just too much going on. You have to be able to laugh in my opinion. It's just really important. It is. And have a good partnership there. Well, Mayor and I had talked about this that on the campaign trail, we talked about communicating with people that we didn't think that the city did it. And in good enough fashion. And that's where the idea came up with the show and she was talking about her podcast as part of this way before we were even elected. And that's what's been fun about this format. But what's your overall goal with Fortitude? Yeah, so initially it was just to kind of stay involved in the political stuff in a kind of a different way. There had to be a way to kind of report it. And then I slowly realized that like, I live two lives, you know, this really bipolar just like, there's like the podcast stuff and all that. And then there's this governmental affairs consulting, which is kind of the dark, quiet arts, you know, like that kind of thing. But I'm trying to, you know, eventually get to be able to merge them together because what I've noticed is a lot of the folks that we have those guests or the people who I interface with there and around the studio that we've built, they're not really in the governmental space. You talk about a bond election, but that's not exciting. And so it's like- David Cook on there talking about a bond election. Yeah, and initially when J.W. and I were talking about it, it's like, is that gonna get any play? You know, and it's like, it has to. We're at a place with, you look at our voting numbers and what that election was in some of these other elections. It's like somehow we have to, if it's making entertaining some way, get people more engaged in kind of their local government and that, you know, so I'm working on ways to try to do that, you know. I would say you're already doing that a little bit because you've had Jack White on there talking about human trafficking and what they're saying there. You've had Rob Semple, Westside Little League, bringing your kids back into it as part of it. So you're melding some of these community aspects into it. Yeah, and I have mainly infrastructure clients and so my next goal is to, and it doesn't have to be, we're on the star of every show, right? I mean, I just, I want to get good views. I want to get folks who are really knowledgeable. So I'm working on kind of an infrastructure one because if you look at just even something like a LinkedIn site, people are combing that for information, you know, whether it be in and around real estate that's based around infrastructure, in and around just kind of where the next big projects are gonna go. And then if you look at the coffers, that that's not only the state, but locally and the feds have put down, there's a tremendous amount of money that is there for the taking if we can do it correctly and thankfully we were able to pass those bond elections but you guys are seeing the flow of that and we need to make sure that Fort Worth in this area is due up and gets with there. So that's kind of like the next, for me, now other people that I work with, they want to do all sports all the time, you know. You do focus on that with JW. Yeah, and I mean to me, that's just, you know, I don't like, I mean, I've never been into that. My wife gets mad. She's like, you shouldn't ask questions about players like that, Brent. These are things that every person should know. Now, I think it's important you kind of bring up different avenues that you're working in or subject matter and it is that Fort Worth is very diverse and so some people might want sports out of a little bit which I'll enter back but then some people might want some real in-depth knowledge about policy or whatever everything else is going on. Yeah, I mean, like we're getting on this 20 year mark when I was called by a friend who ran a guy named Kim Brimer's primary campaign. He said, I had gone through the tech bus that just happened 20 years ago. He said, why don't you run his general election? And they started talking about counting commissioners. I had no idea who any of these people were and I think that a lot of people are like that. They're moving through life, doing their things and they really don't even pay attention to government that much and kind of the role of government and where those folks are and so it's kind of ironic that we're getting that and so it's just like, yeah, I think that I think we could stand to get some more people involved in not like an education way, but just to know, you know your world is like that very much but there's probably still people you go to on Friday Night Cocktail Hour who, they don't want to talk any of that because they really, they don't know a lot about it. Yeah, no, no, no. Yeah, for sure, for sure. But it seems and so I've asked everybody this and maybe it'll be a self-fulfilling prophecy but is there a guest you haven't had yet that you'd like to have on the show? So Maddie alluded to it, so I play pedal steel guitar and it's like this foreign instrument, right? And the guys when I first started playing, they're all older, now they're 70s and stuff. Hey, you got any other, when I was a little bit younger that was like 20 years ago too when I started and they said, you got any young guys like you? Because we're worried we're gonna lose this instrument. So there's so much pedal steel history in this state and they've done a Western swing documentary but they don't really focus. So the one guy that I keep pushing for is my pedal steel teacher. He's got a shop over in White Settlement and he is like the luthier of all luthiers and knows how to fix those things and sells them and it's just a, it would be great and I wanna go to a shop because there's stuff everywhere you know hanging on stuff. So that'd be one of mine. Okay, that's awesome, that's awesome. Well, good luck getting that. You can show this later and say see I want you on the show. Sure, sure. Appreciate you being here. Thanks again. Thank you. Thank you Michael, I appreciate it. Now we're here with E.J. Karyon that does the 817 podcast, welcome. Welcome, thank you, thank you for having me. Welcome, I have listened to your podcast a lot, I love it. Tell us, our viewers a little bit about the idea behind it, how it came about and you and your partner, Jimmy. Yep. Yep, how it came together. Yeah, so Jimmy couldn't be here. Really what happened is we both live in the east side of Fort Worth and we're both really news junkies. I was a journalism major in school and during the pandemic, you know, but my work is very national and very not home often and so being stuck at home, it was a chance and opportunity to get local and so we were doing, we were ranting about Fort Worth already as friends. So I was like, man, how do we do a podcast about this? And then as well as, you know, I also invested in doing theater ship Fort Worth class and just kind of getting more involved locally because I didn't have that time before the pandemic. Right, right. Who is your audience with the podcast? What are you trying, what are you aiming to? I would say, yeah, just Fort Worth, Tarrant County. We record every Monday and the idea is to do a 45 minute show where we spend 10 hours a week, you know, reading through local news, trying to find what's the important stories, the important data and then we bring them to our listeners. So this idea is if you don't have 10 hours to listen to all the news, we'll do it in 45 minutes and then we'll do it in audio in a fun way for you so you can get that insight. So that's kind of the breakdown. Right, right. And I'll say that some of our other guests have been a little more positive about things that are happening at Fort Worth. Your show's a little more skeptical about things that are happening at Fort Worth. How do you think about that? Yeah, I think that's what really has made our pod resonate with a core people is that, you know, Fort Worth has this friendly vibe about it and everything's always so happy and go lucky. And so we are able to say, be more transparent and just be more, hey, you know, life isn't that easy. We're not a perfect place. And so I think that authenticity is big and I think that's why our listeners really like it. On top of like, we're not affiliated with anyone. You know, we're not affiliated with the city, we're not affiliated with visit Fort Worth, we're not affiliated with anyone. So we can really, we have no agenda. You know, I have the same amount of friends I've had before the podcast. So it's this idea of, you know, just being real. And I think that's what catches people. And so Maddie Parker, you know, one of her great data is the average Fort Worthian is 34 and a person of color. And I'm like, so you're looking at the listener, you know, like I feel like that was a big key for us. It's like to actually represent a part of Fort Worth where instead where most of Fort Worth is still represented by the average voter, which is 66. Right, right. And I think that's the kicker of where our pot is when a game more young people excited about the future of Fort Worth and voting and just seeing that their actions matter. No, I love that too. And people often say, well, you don't want people to vote. It's funny, I do want people to vote because I get tired of people saying, well, you're only elected by this amount. That's who showed up to vote. So that's who had a voice. So I actually encourage people to get educated, to show up to vote. You know, our latest bond election, 5% of the population voted. But it will be a trigger for multiple generations because there's $560 million that is going into this that will be infrastructure, you know, police, fire, libraries and all these that, again, 5%- You're like 3%, you're like 3% away from a pay raise. It's true. It's true. It didn't fail as miserably as I thought it would. I was very impressed. I agree. We were pro, given the city council a livable wage. So we were there for that. Yeah, I- So we act, you know, we were excited for stuff like that. You know, I think our pod, we've had Maddie, we've had people on. And our whole thing is, I hope everyone sees our toughness as, you know, if I want to know BS opinion and perspective where someone's going to be straight with me. Right. They once have a podcast to do that. Yeah, well, it's good. So you bring up the mayor during the campaign, she and I had talked a little bit about we don't think the city communicates very well at all and that people get their news in different ways. And part of that is getting, you know, reliable news and having that. So what was your sort of thought about a podcast? Why do a podcast? Since we're featuring all podcasts on this episode. Yeah, I think like someone said earlier, podcasts is like a way to be productive where you can like fold clothes and listen to audio. You can mow the lawn and listen to audio. It's just a way to be efficient and get that insight. So we're reading is just not the fondest for a lot of people to sit down and actually read the newspaper. Right. And so the podcast just made sense. And I feel like the market that we're trying to hit is a more youthful market, even though they may not be in the podcast just yet, but I think we're trying to be, you know, that Monday morning podcast show for doers in Fort Worth who wants to get some insights and perspectives on people who are actually doing some stuff. You know, I run my own company, you know, that's Jimmy runs an indie movie theater. We're not just two people with no lives. You know, these are people who are, I like to say are smart or ambitious or hustling right next to you. And so I think that's where we have a good fandom of, you know, listeners. Other hustlers that are out there trying to just get things done. Well, who's been your favorite guest so far or? Yeah, I would say Robert Stearns was a great one for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause I mean, he was really good just because it was I actually- It's mostly the two of you, but you have had some guests as part of this. Yeah, yeah. So yeah. We've been doing a lot more just us too lately just because if you're getting this setup interviews are just tough to get. And for us, we both got full-time jobs. And so we're just like Sundays show up and then it comes out Monday. Right. And so I always tell, you know, Fort Worth's lucky I got a real job cause I would spend more time on it and actually do more for the city. But, yeah. You had Harrison on there, Mantis from start to end. Yeah, Harrison's great. That was a great episode just talking about it. Harrison's great. Cause he does his full-time job is to sit and watch the city government. Yeah, yeah. And he's always, you know, sending, you know, giving us requests and updates and ideas. He's a big fan of the pod. So yeah, tons of Chris from Fort Worth report was great. Talking about journalism. So yeah, a lot of good people on the pod. And it's just cool to see who listens. You know, we say something and someone texts us. You know, like, oh yeah, this is right. This is wrong. It's so just cool to see who listens. Yeah, yeah. Well, I listen and you sort of bring up Chris and other publications too. But that's, I guess the post, Washington Post theme is democracy dies in darkness. And so, appreciate that. So you mentioned you have, you actually have a full-time job. It's called student success. Agency. Agency. Tell us a little bit about that and how you help students succeed. So for about 10 years, we started a digital platform that allows kids to receive advising, tutoring, counseling, anywhere anytime from their cell phones. So we're really helping schools reimagine student support services in a digital world. Before student success agency, kids could only get support services during the day when kids were in class. That would be like the grocery store only open when you're at work. Like, I know I need these resources. I know these services, but why are they only available when I'm in school? And so we've helped over 550 schools create digital student support services across 20 states. Servicing 50,000 students across the country with digital support. So that's, I've been doing for 10 years. And I am the only resident of Fort Worth. Everyone else lives across the country of our staff and team. Did you see COVID? You were able to sort of expand the business because you did it digitally. Yes, yes. People who saw what we were doing as a nice to have and now has became a need for the world. So it's been exciting because we've been doing this since Skype was cool. So I'd like to say we've been doing this for a while. So, but now to see, you know- You might have to explain to me what Skype was. Yeah, right. And so, you know, and just what a Cameron Cushman, he was another great interview, you know what the entrepreneurial scene that's coming, the Bitcoin stuff, all this stuff is really fun. And I think, you know, again, you have two entrepreneurs reading the news. You know, we are more progressive. And so it's just a cool, younger take of Fort Worth. Yeah, you brought up Bitcoin because I listened to the episode where it was kind of like, what the heck is happening? But I think overall in the end, you were favorable with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's funny, we've gotten a lot of criticism. But I've had to explain it's three computers in the basement of City Hall and really it was a mayor was at some event and she got asked about it. She goes, it was a PR stunt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I yelled from the audience and it worked. Yeah, the best $2,000 you spent. That's right. You got Bloomberg, you got- Every single age, I think we, I forget how many impressions they sent us a list of that Fort Worth is on the map. Yeah, and I got friends, I got friends texting me. Oh, look, you always talk about Fort Worth, they can do anything. Look at this, you know? So, I was like, yeah, we're making it happen. So, yeah, so it's been fun. And Fort Worth Kudos, we also had that. We had this like Kendrick Lamar thing that just happened with the hip hop. I think it's up to Art Gallo trying to buy the painting from the Louvre. So we've kind of been, you know, CNN with Goldie's barbecue. Like we're doing some natural stuff. That's exciting as the 13th biggest city. So, yeah. We say 12, but I think we're sort of moving ourselves up. I think we're like 12 and a half or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we'll be there, we'll be there. Well, thanks for your time, EJ, I appreciate it. Thanks for coming on, thanks for what you do. Likewise. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Fort Worth Forward. It was great to be out here at Blank Co-work & Studio and I hope you learned a little bit more about Fort Worth through the podcast that we featured today. Thank you again, if you have suggestions of people that you would like to see appear here to tell their Fort Worth story, email us at district three at Fort Worth, Texas. Again, thank you.