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Speaker 1: I have this deeply ingrained belief that everyone should get

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Speaker 1: to do whatever they want to if they're willing to

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Speaker 1: do the work. And I've always thought that, and Mississippi

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Speaker 1: kind of broke me of that opinion and made it

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Speaker 1: clear that no, that's just being able to feel like

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Speaker 1: you're somewhere near the bottom and looking up and feeling

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Speaker 1: like it's just a climb is a privilege.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

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Speaker 2: I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,

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Speaker 2: I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach an

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Speaker 2: inner city Memphis. And the last part unintentionally led to

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Speaker 2: an oscar for the film about our team, it's called Undefeated.

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Speaker 2: I believe our country's problems will never be solved by

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Speaker 2: a bunch of fancy people and nice suits talking big

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Speaker 2: words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox, but rather

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Speaker 2: by an army of normal folks, US just you and

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Speaker 2: me deciding hey, I can help. That's what Kagan Coughlin,

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Speaker 2: the voice we just heard, has done. Kagan and his

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Speaker 2: wife Alexi have been huge catalysts to revitalizing the once

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Speaker 2: declining small town of Water Valley, Mississippi, incidentally, where my

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Speaker 2: grandfather was from, in terms of its buildings, its businesses,

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Speaker 2: and most of all, offering new paths to achieving the

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Speaker 2: American dream in a place that it was really hard

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Speaker 2: to see happening. Kagan's base Camp Coding Academy trains high

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Speaker 2: school graduates to become software developers in twelve months and

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Speaker 2: it's one hundred percent free to them. And there over

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Speaker 2: one hundred graduates have gone on to work for major

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Speaker 2: corporations such as FEDUX, Ceasey, and FNC. It's an amazing

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Speaker 2: story developing software developers in rural Mississippi. I can't wait

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Speaker 2: for you to meet Kagan right after these brief messages

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Speaker 2: from our generous sponsors. Tell me about your parents and Vermont.

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Speaker 1: My parents in Vermont.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, tell me about your family.

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Speaker 1: My family. So, my father is a military brat whose

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Speaker 1: father passed away at a tragically early age. So my

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Speaker 1: father was without a father when he was five and

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Speaker 1: when my grando break passed the army.

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Speaker 2: The army.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so my grandfather was a lieutenant colonel. He was

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Speaker 1: a battalion commander for heavy Armored Battalion some thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I've limited knowledge. There wasn't a lot of talking about

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Speaker 1: my grandfather when my father was But my my grandmother

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Speaker 1: picked up her three or four twins, my father, Kitty

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Speaker 1: and Maria, her five children, and mood Vermont, took the

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Speaker 1: life insurance money and scraped together whatever she could and

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Speaker 1: mood Vermont and bought a farm.

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Speaker 2: So my what kind of farm, like.

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Speaker 1: Like like a dairy farm in the no kidding, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: your grandmother, my grandmother.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's a whole story about her, the story what

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Speaker 2: a tough woman grabs up five kids, all in that

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Speaker 2: age and goes to Vermont and starts a dairy farm.

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Speaker 1: And she there's a lot of stories about her. She

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Speaker 1: wrote some books about that experience, No kid, the what

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Speaker 1: is it? The Women's Home Journal did a serial on her.

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Speaker 1: My father talks about so cool having photographers from Life

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Speaker 1: magazine living in the house for periods of time. But

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Speaker 1: that turned my father into a Vermont farm kid who

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Speaker 1: grew up working on the farm, working in his stepfather's

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Speaker 1: cabinet shop, no kidding. And then my mother grew up

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Speaker 1: in Switzerland.

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Speaker 2: Is she Swiss?

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Speaker 1: She's Swiss, Swiss born, Swiss born, came to the States

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Speaker 1: at nineteen.

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Speaker 2: I believe realized we're talking about a Swiss miss and

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Speaker 2: a dairy farmer meeting up. Do you realize this is

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Speaker 2: the story of your family. That's kind of cool.

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Speaker 1: Actually it's my parents are a strange, eclectic yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean yeah. So my father was just a Vermont farm boy.

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Speaker 1: And the story is he hiked there's one mountain in Vermont,

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Speaker 1: a Scotney Mountain where everybody hikes once a year, and

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Speaker 1: he hiked at the top of the mountain and there

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Speaker 1: was this Swiss au pair playing a guitar, and all

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Speaker 1: the Vermont farm boys. It was like a feeding frenzy

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Speaker 1: of oh, my word, fresh that is that's my mother.

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Speaker 2: That is so crazy.

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Speaker 1: And they got married.

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Speaker 2: I mean, this is like the sound of music. Could

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Speaker 2: I could imagine the hills and all that.

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Speaker 1: They got married at sunrise by themselves. I think maybe

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Speaker 1: my father's parents were there in jeans like they're just wow.

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Speaker 1: And then my father he worked as a carpenter. He

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Speaker 1: worked in a factory as an electrician.

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Speaker 2: Blue collar guy.

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Speaker 1: Blue collar guy. We spent as much time on picket

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Speaker 1: lines as we did, knowing that he was in the

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Speaker 1: factory working.

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Speaker 2: Picket lines for the union.

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Speaker 1: For the union He finished out his career in that

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Speaker 1: area working for United Electrical two eighteen as a chief

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Speaker 1: steward for the union. Kidding, and we spent plenty of time.

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Speaker 2: That's also a story, Oh.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and an impressionable age holding signs on picket lines,

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Speaker 1: wondering if it was okay to yell scab like all

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Speaker 1: the grown ups around us.

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Speaker 2: What was your unassuming Swiss? Because all Swiss are unassuming,

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Speaker 2: mother doing when y'all are on the picket line.

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Speaker 1: So she wasn't on the picket line.

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Speaker 2: She's Swiss. They don't do those things. They're very neutral, you.

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Speaker 1: Know, But I would I've heard, but the unassuming Swiss,

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Speaker 1: I think stay home. And my mother was not that.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't that far.

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Speaker 1: But she for years she was a homemaker. She taught

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Speaker 1: most of her education that she received in Switzerland didn't translate.

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Speaker 1: And she's also active in her church.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: Most of my memories what do we do? I would

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Speaker 1: find myself in very old folks homes. We were delivering

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Speaker 1: groceries and we did not have much to spare.

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Speaker 2: But how many is we? How many siblings?

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Speaker 1: I'm one of four four, so number three of four.

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Speaker 2: We've got blue collar dairy farmer dad who worked in

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Speaker 2: stepdad's cabinet shop, learned to work with his hands and

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Speaker 2: became a union guy. Met the Swiss so pair on

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Speaker 2: the side of the mountain with a guitar the sound

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Speaker 2: of music, had four kids, grew up in Vermont and

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Speaker 2: active in their church. Yes, that is a beautiful American

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Speaker 2: normal story.

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Speaker 1: That's a lovely Yes. At sixty four thousand feet, that's

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Speaker 1: precisely what Listen.

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Speaker 2: We all have weird stuff that goes on in our families.

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Speaker 2: But the point is, you weren't born into a trust fund.

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Speaker 2: You were not a guy who was on the extraordinary

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Speaker 2: side of the world. You're just an ordinary guy that

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Speaker 2: came from an ordinary, blue collar, hardworking, loving family.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. That and part of that translates into a chip

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Speaker 1: on your shoulder for some period of time in your life.

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Speaker 1: And I managed to talk about that. So when you

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Speaker 1: when you grew up in a hard working family where

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Speaker 1: things are not handed, and yet you live in a

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Speaker 1: community where there are other folks that have a different

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Speaker 1: economic experience, and a lot of that exposure to those

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Speaker 1: folks grows in school. If you start, if you're serious

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Speaker 1: about your studies, and most of your classmates. Over time,

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Speaker 1: if you're pushing in that direction, tend to have more fluence,

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Speaker 1: more fluence, more support in their home families that care

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Speaker 1: about academics, which often translate directly to more fluence. And

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Speaker 1: so if you are leaving school to go to your

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Speaker 1: after school job.

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Speaker 2: And you.

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Speaker 1: Liked having the things that everybody you went to school

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Speaker 1: with had, but if you wanted them, you were going

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Speaker 1: to pay for them yourself, you have a different life

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Speaker 1: than your friends and classmates.

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Speaker 2: So Kegan. My father left home when I was four.

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Speaker 2: My mother was marry and divorced a number of times,

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Speaker 2: and the first time I ever mowed my own grass

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Speaker 2: was the house that I bought when my second child

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Speaker 2: was born. Because I grew up in apartments, yet I

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Speaker 2: went to pretty affluent schools because that was education at

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Speaker 2: least mattered. But when I tell you, I really identify

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Speaker 2: with what you're saying, I completely get it. It sucked

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Speaker 2: to have to work for three summers to buy a

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Speaker 2: white Caprice Classic. Then when you pulled the floorboard back,

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Speaker 2: you could see the road beneath your feet, and my

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Speaker 2: friends nicknamed my car the road Commode because it was

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Speaker 2: white with white pat and leather interiors white on white

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Speaker 2: and it was a piece of crap. And then I

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Speaker 2: had friends driving around brand new two ads XIS. So

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Speaker 2: I get it. I completely get it. But I also believe,

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Speaker 2: and I mentionted to know, if you believe this that

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Speaker 2: that that chip, if you don't let it consume, you

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Speaker 2: can be an incredible driver for your own life.

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Speaker 1: Yes, the as a as a driver, you can have

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Speaker 1: an unhealthy impact. So you can be looking just for

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Speaker 1: those things. And you know, when I was younger, it

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Speaker 1: was I need the North.

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Speaker 2: Face backpack, yeah right.

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Speaker 1: Which for some reason costs one hundred dollars. And my

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Speaker 1: parents would never in a million years consider.

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Speaker 2: Mine were Bass regions. Do you even remember those the shoes? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: the people from not even wear those things. Ye were

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Speaker 2: wearing likeities and stuff. And anyway, Bass Regions back in

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Speaker 2: the day penny loafers that you actually put the penny

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Speaker 2: in the little slot on the tongue, well, they were

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Speaker 2: like back in the early eighties, they were like eighty bucks.

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Speaker 2: I mean they were high back then. They're high now,

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Speaker 2: but I mean really expensive. And they had these knockoffs

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Speaker 2: that were shaped like it, but the tongue instead of

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Speaker 2: being that smooth round, it was actually jagged edged, and

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Speaker 2: the little buckles on the side, instead of being nice

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Speaker 2: and smooth than Tyler Roven, were like walnuts on the

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Speaker 2: side of your shoes. And the instead of being that cool,

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Speaker 2: rich brown color, they were almost purple. And I had

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Speaker 2: to wear those damn things. And I knew people were

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Speaker 2: looking at my knockoff bass regions. But you talk about

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Speaker 2: the North Ways backpack Mama's bass Regions, and today, as

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Speaker 2: a fifty three year old man who has had some

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Speaker 2: modicum success his life, I'm still pissed off. I had

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Speaker 2: to wear those shoes.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing the impact. And you know that you thought

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Speaker 1: everybody noticed it, but it was in your own head

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Speaker 1: more than anybody else.

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Speaker 2: It's probably true. But the point is you're an average

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Speaker 2: dude from an average family, right, and so you go

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Speaker 2: to college, you start chasing the dream in DC, right.

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Speaker 1: That's precisely what I was doing. I left college had

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Speaker 1: a great education which equipped me for not really a career.

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Speaker 1: Well educated, not well trained.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's too much every college graduate as far as

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Speaker 2: I'm concerned.

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Speaker 1: But I landed a position through the kindness of some

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Speaker 1: executives at Fannie May working for Fan ma mortgage industry

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Speaker 1: well compensated twenty early twenties, making more than my parents

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Speaker 1: had ever made, questioning my life choices as I sat

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Speaker 1: in a cubicle. If you have that economic chip on

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Speaker 1: your shoulder, DC is terrible because you walk in and

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Speaker 1: you're surrounded by nice things, great history. Everything is out

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Speaker 1: of your reach. And I remember I got my full

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Speaker 1: time position offer from Fanny May. The benefits package was amazing.

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Speaker 1: The number that I would be taking home was amazing.

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Speaker 2: Make him more than your dad ever did.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah. And I went to the real estate office.

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Speaker 1: I was like, oh my word, I'm going to buy something.

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Speaker 1: And I had a three approval letter for three hundred

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Speaker 1: and something thousand dollars.

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Speaker 2: You should be able to buy anything.

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Speaker 1: I said, show me the list of everything that I

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Speaker 1: can afford. I'm going to pick what I'm going to buy.

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Speaker 1: And in DC and all the surrounding areas, and this

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Speaker 1: was in the early two thousands, there were two things

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Speaker 1: that I could afford for three hundred and something thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars and it was a one bedroom, needed to be

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Speaker 1: gutted studio thing on Connecticut Avenue and a tenth of

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Speaker 1: an acre with a literal shack on it without plumbing,

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Speaker 1: somewhere out on the edge of Tacoma Park or Silver Spring. Again,

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Speaker 1: if you have that financial chip on your shoulder, money

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Speaker 1: should never get in your way. So I found workarounds.

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Speaker 1: I lived in for years paying no rent because when

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Speaker 1: first presented with you can't afford anything, and rental rates

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Speaker 1: are ludicrously high, and my parents had a couple of

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Speaker 1: rental properties, and that to me made economic sense that, yes,

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Speaker 1: I spent a lot of my teenage years around my

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Speaker 1: jobs fixing apartments for my parents that had been ruined

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Speaker 1: by tenants.

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Speaker 2: Which will learn later is come in handy.

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Speaker 1: Yes, But I literally this is the beginning of Craigslist,

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Speaker 1: long before social media or anything like that. And I

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Speaker 1: sat down one evening and wrote an advertisement for myself saying,

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Speaker 1: handy person looking to live somewhere close to work, and

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Speaker 1: I can't afford rent, but I'm very handy capable.

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Speaker 2: So give me your place to live in for free

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Speaker 2: and I'll fix it while i'm there.

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Speaker 1: Correct. And when I told the Alexi that I had

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Speaker 1: done that, she thought I was going to get murdered.

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Speaker 1: But I had a surprising number of folks reach out,

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Speaker 1: and I ended up living with someone who to this

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Speaker 1: day is a close friend who had just moved back

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Speaker 1: to DC into a house that her mother had left

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Speaker 1: her and I spent years living in the basement and

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Speaker 1: fixing it up after hours.

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Speaker 2: And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,

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Speaker 2: I really hope you'll consider signing up to join the

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Speaker 2: Army at Normalfolks dot us. Guys, I really do believe

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00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:42,520
Speaker 2: that this army can change the country. By signing up,

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00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:46,400
Speaker 2: you'll also receive our weekly newsletter that has short episode

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00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:49,200
Speaker 2: summaries in case you prefer reading about the army members

258
00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:52,160
Speaker 2: or celebrating each week, as well as fun and exciting

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00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:55,800
Speaker 2: updates about our movement. Think about it. We'll be right

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Speaker 2: back now. Let's continue with Kagan and how a company

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Speaker 2: from Oxford, Mississippi wooed him out of Washington. D c

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Speaker 2: f NC is a leading software provider for the real

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Speaker 2: estate industry, and the wooing by its incredible leaders interested Kagan,

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Speaker 2: he had never been wooed before. Going back to their

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Speaker 2: more country roots and being able to afford more also

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Speaker 2: played a role, and Kagan and Alexei ultimately settled down

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Speaker 2: in the nearby town of Water Valley. Population three thousand,

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Speaker 2: seven hundred, almost like from Heehaw s lout. Let's just

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Speaker 2: talk about Water Valley. My grandfather from Water Valley really

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Speaker 2: spa and basketball at Ole, miss in the thirties, and

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Speaker 2: he's passed long years ago, but was from Water Valley.

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Speaker 2: And so I was in Water Valley when I was

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Speaker 2: a twelve year old with him one day to visit

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Speaker 2: a cemetery, and I think it was he was putting

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Speaker 2: flowers on somebody's grave. I was a kid. I don't remember,

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Speaker 2: but I will tell you on that visit when I

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Speaker 2: was twelve years old. And then the next time I

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Speaker 2: came back to Water Valley, when I was a senior

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Speaker 2: in college, not much had changed in Water Valley, Mississippi.

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Speaker 1: My wife had left her first position in DC was

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Speaker 1: with the Journal of Public Health, and she left that

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Speaker 1: and came to Mississippi with me and found herself not

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Speaker 1: in Oxford, but in Water Valley, one block off of

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Speaker 1: a main street that was generously sixty percent vacant, possibly

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Speaker 1: more than that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what our remember of it, yep.

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Speaker 1: And so she is the parson.

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Speaker 2: Our remember of it for three decades of experience of

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Speaker 2: it there.

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Speaker 1: So this the economic decline of this community is it's

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Speaker 1: quite a story between In the forties, the railroad used

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Speaker 1: to have this used to have the only turntable between

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Speaker 1: New Orleans and Chicago, the only place and locomotive could

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Speaker 1: be reversed, and they had machine shops back here, which

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Speaker 1: were the biggest in the region. And in the forties

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Speaker 1: the railroad physically ripped that turntable out and moved it

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Speaker 1: to Jackson, Tennessee. And at the same time, within a

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Speaker 1: year or two, most of not most, but forty roughly

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Speaker 1: forty percent of the farmland in the county was taken

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Speaker 1: by the federal government for Enid Lake and Grenada Lake,

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Speaker 1: no kidding. So the industry left and then.

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Speaker 2: The road farming, and it both got decimated.

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Speaker 1: And this building that we're sitting in right now was

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Speaker 1: the state's attempt to save the town because there was

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Speaker 1: no purpose left. There was no there was nothing left there.

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Speaker 1: And so the state built this factory building we're sitting

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Speaker 1: in and gave it to the city and they contracted

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Speaker 1: with rice sticks sewing factory. I'm not sure exactly what

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Speaker 1: they made.

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Speaker 2: Way they all went to Asia in the eighties.

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Speaker 1: Nineties, late eighties, early nineties so this was the economic carpet.

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Speaker 1: This building sustained this community when everything else was wass textiles.

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Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, well all that's gone.

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Speaker 1: So until the early nineties, and when this closed in

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Speaker 1: the nineties, nothing ever came back into this building.

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Speaker 2: It was it was going to come back, right.

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Speaker 1: So you tell the story of this community and it's

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Speaker 1: just a kick and economic kick and economic kick.

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Speaker 2: Just got haed.

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Speaker 1: And so by the time we arrived the main street,

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Speaker 1: we had our lumbriar, we had a hardware store, we

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Speaker 1: had a bank, and we had a drug store, which

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Speaker 1: is probably as much a reason that we live here

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Speaker 1: as anything else, because it was a drug store with

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Speaker 1: a soda fountain run by mister Binny Turnage.

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Speaker 2: Imagine an old rex Al or.

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Speaker 1: Something like that. Yes, but think of the consummate white haired, tall,

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Speaker 1: skinny man with a bow tie.

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Speaker 2: And that the soda fountains still do milkshakes and things

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Speaker 2: just like itsonderful life.

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Speaker 1: The first time we rolled into this town, we pulled

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Speaker 1: over in front of one of the few storefronts that

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Speaker 1: had life in it. We went inside. This gentleman who's

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Speaker 1: the pharmacist, made us milkshakes in the old you know,

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Speaker 1: you stick the metal there. Oh it's still there. His

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Speaker 1: grandson is the person who is a fifth or sixth

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Speaker 1: generation Turnage, who will make you your milkshake today, Van good. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: though I'm a chocolate milkshake. But that so that gentleman

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Speaker 1: in a bow tie, mister Binny Turnage in a bow tie,

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Speaker 1: made us our milkshakes, talked to us like we were

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Speaker 1: family friends, gave us hugs before we left, and gave

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Speaker 1: us these little yellow cards that he carries with him

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Speaker 1: at all times that say smile. God loves you, and

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Speaker 1: so do I. That if you go around this community,

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Speaker 1: you see them on dashboards, you see them at every

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Speaker 1: checkout register in every business. And we walked out and

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Speaker 1: stood on the sidewalk of this mostly empty town, smelling

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Speaker 1: of aftershaved and we looked at her, where where are we?

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Speaker 2: And we we're not DC anymore?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we literally we We drove down the street, took

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Speaker 1: a right and rented that house. It's two blocks away

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Speaker 1: as the Crow Flight. It's one block away from Turn's

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Speaker 1: drug store.

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Speaker 2: And Kagan, like most of us, had side interest. He

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Speaker 2: liked working with his hands, and after not working with

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Speaker 2: his hands all day and computer, he felt the itch

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Speaker 2: to get them dirty. Given that his wife went to

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Speaker 2: bed at nine pm, Kagan had some freedom to play

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Speaker 2: around in what he called his tree fort that happened

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Speaker 2: to be the largest building on Main Street Water Valley

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Speaker 2: that was abandoned and actually about to be demolished. So

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Speaker 2: Kagan bought it and he fixed it up from nine

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Speaker 2: pm till one or two in the morning most nights.

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Speaker 2: His wife ended up taking the renovated ground floor and

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Speaker 2: turned it into what they call the BTC, which is

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Speaker 2: a farmer's market slash grocery store slash restaurant, and it

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Speaker 2: gave massive momentum to the revitalization of downtown Water Valley, which,

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Speaker 2: believe it or not, has been profiled in the New

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Speaker 2: York Times. Of all places and guys, this normal couple,

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Speaker 2: they were just getting started.

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Speaker 1: In twenty twelve, six years after coming to Mississippi, I

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Speaker 1: stepped away from corporate America. Okay, and I.

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Speaker 2: Because you need more time in your treehouse.

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Speaker 1: No, that treehouse was done. Oh boy, there's a lot

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Speaker 1: that goes into it. That's kind of the moment when

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Speaker 1: the chip fell off my shoulder. And I had two children,

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Speaker 1: two and three. I had a wife that I adore

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Speaker 1: and I had always wanted those things separate from the

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Speaker 1: economic chip. I had always wanted a wife and kids,

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Speaker 1: and I had them, and I was never home. It's

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Speaker 1: not a joke. It's we talk about the golden handcuffs,

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Speaker 1: particularly for folks that have that desire to be able

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Speaker 1: to afford things. When you can, it's addictive. It is

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Speaker 1: when you can afford vehicles that you used to only

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Speaker 1: see drive by.

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Speaker 2: The ship becomes an addiction.

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Speaker 1: I believe so for some folks. And in twenty twelve, making.

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Speaker 2: Me feel guilty about the new car just falling. It's nice.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they're nice, but there's different paths to achieve those things.

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Speaker 1: And again my wife takes credit by telling me that

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Speaker 1: I could stop, that we could re evaluate. Wow, and

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Speaker 1: I gave notice the next morning.

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Speaker 2: You're kidding.

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Speaker 1: So a few years pass while I'm playing with my family.

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Speaker 1: But again I don't sit still. So we buy a farm,

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Speaker 1: of course, and then my wife and I purchased and

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Speaker 1: renovated another five buildings on Mainstream five because there were

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Speaker 1: five for sale.

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Speaker 2: I was just I was swear to you. I was

400
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,280
Speaker 2: about to say there wasn't missed six. It's like Eddie

401
00:24:47,359 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 2: Murphy's story when they asked the guy why he killed

402
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:55,960
Speaker 2: his family said they was at home. So the point is,

403
00:24:56,400 --> 00:25:00,359
Speaker 2: why didn't you do six? Because they was only five?

404
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,879
Speaker 1: So I bought them all and that had that had

405
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Speaker 1: taken up some time and then we had I finished

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00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:08,679
Speaker 1: that and again I don't sit still. Well, that is

407
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Speaker 1: my happy spot is being busy.

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00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 2: You're like, you're like Daddy Warbucks of downtown Water Valley

409
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Speaker 2: with all your property, aren't you.

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Speaker 1: Uh in the ownership number? If you're buying in rural Mississippi,

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00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:26,720
Speaker 1: the property values are very different.

412
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Speaker 2: So really, yeah, So when when.

413
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 1: I used to propose to my wife buying something else

414
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 1: and she would look at me and say, really, that

415
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 1: one's collapsed, Why in the world you want that one?

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00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,200
Speaker 1: For a while, we tipped, we tipped over this threshold,

417
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:50,479
Speaker 1: but for longer than you would believe. Everything we had

418
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Speaker 1: purchased and invested every nickel we have into Water Valley, Mississippi.

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Speaker 1: You could have liquidated all of them and you still

420
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Speaker 1: wouldn't have been able to buy that townhouse in Georgetown

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00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:01,640
Speaker 1: that we had our eye on when we were still

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00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,960
Speaker 1: living in DC. It's just the economics of rural America

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00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:10,640
Speaker 1: are They're decades behind the major metropolitan areas in the country.

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Speaker 2: You might say they are decades behind on a balance sheet,

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00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:22,560
Speaker 2: but some would argue their decades behind a lifestyle, because

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00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:26,920
Speaker 2: think of what difference you've been able to make here

427
00:26:27,359 --> 00:26:29,919
Speaker 2: for the city and for the youth in the city

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00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:34,200
Speaker 2: and for countless people versus owning a town home in

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Speaker 2: d C. They just don't seem to measure up, do they.

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00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: No, And there's not much to do with your hands

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00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:41,520
Speaker 1: in the townhouse in DC.

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Speaker 2: Not much.

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00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,440
Speaker 1: Yes, the dollar goes a long way for everybody.

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00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:55,960
Speaker 2: In rural yep, that's pretty amazing. And Main street's taking

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00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 2: a completely different vibe. Tell me what's happened.

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00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 1: There has been just a head of steam that's built

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00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,719
Speaker 1: up and I could go incrementally. So the Mechanics Bank,

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00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 1: which used to be the Bank of Water Valley, that

439
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:13,000
Speaker 1: cool old bank building that you had heard about that

440
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:15,600
Speaker 1: was torn down in the early eighties, that is now

441
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 1: Mechanics Bank. Actually there may be some more complications around

442
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 1: that franchise that might have been bought by Renaissance Bank.

443
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:28,400
Speaker 1: But anyway, the banks it's a bank and Water Valley

444
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:32,000
Speaker 1: is its headquarters and it had buildings it had been

445
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:35,520
Speaker 1: buying buildings on Main Street to operate out of because

446
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: there was no other competition. And at some point the

447
00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:41,399
Speaker 1: board of that bank, who are all local folks, said,

448
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 1: if other people are borrowing money from us to invest

449
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,600
Speaker 1: into the buildings all around us, then we need to

450
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: step up as well. And they did a million dollar

451
00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:54,879
Speaker 1: plus renovation on the front and interior of their building,

452
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: and it's just incrementally up and down the street. Folks

453
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,560
Speaker 1: would just lean in and first clean the front of

454
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:03,720
Speaker 1: the face and then dig in.

455
00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 2: I mean, are you willing to understand that this probably

456
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:08,400
Speaker 2: doesn't happen unless you decide to move here from DC

457
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 2: and have a tree fort.

458
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:13,439
Speaker 1: No, I'm not well. I don't want that kind of responsibility.

459
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 2: And there's that responsibility. It's it's an awesome irony.

460
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 1: It's a timing.

461
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 2: It's a it is timing. But honestly, dude, I mean,

462
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 2: it's no different than when you know your your grandmother

463
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,840
Speaker 2: took five kids to Vermont and a bunch of cow

464
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 2: kids tripped over Swiss miss out there with a guitar

465
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:40,720
Speaker 2: that was timing. That worked out too, But honestly, dude,

466
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 2: if you're not interested in a rule setting and fall

467
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 2: in love with a milkshake making pharmacist and decide to

468
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,720
Speaker 2: run a house around the corner and have a tree.

469
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 2: Fort Water Valley still looks like it did ten, twenty

470
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:03,000
Speaker 2: thirty and forty years ago. That's amazing story. It's a

471
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 2: whole town.

472
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 1: There are catalysts that come out of all sorts of directions, and.

473
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:14,680
Speaker 2: Look, I appreciate your ability, but I'm gonna say it

474
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:18,640
Speaker 2: to the people listening. It is a normal guy, just

475
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 2: an average dude who used his talents to do something extraordinary.

476
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 2: And I mean a whole town's been revitalized. And certainly

477
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 2: there were other people involved. I'm sure the pharmacist guy

478
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 2: that somehow by hook or cook kept his storefront going,

479
00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 2: the art guy that did that, that people involved in

480
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 2: the bank. But the truth is the building that your

481
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,520
Speaker 2: farmer's markets in and that was your treehouse was going

482
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:50,720
Speaker 2: to be yanked down and you saved it from that

483
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 2: and that becomes an anchor along with the bank, to

484
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,440
Speaker 2: the whole thing. And it's just an amazing story. But

485
00:29:56,600 --> 00:30:04,760
Speaker 2: it's not even to me. So the real story, the

486
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 2: real story, well that's after the break in your spare time,

487
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:33,680
Speaker 2: because you, I guess completed your tree what'd you call it? Yeah, whatever,

488
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:36,520
Speaker 2: tree for it, because you completed your tree for it.

489
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 2: You decide that you're going to start base camp. Just

490
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:50,880
Speaker 2: tell us what base camp is originally and why and

491
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 2: what you're thinking was behind it. And I'm going to

492
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 2: shut up and just I'm gonna get. I want you

493
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 2: to get. I want our listeners to just understand why

494
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 2: base camp started and what it was at the beginning,

495
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 2: and what your purpose was. Share that.

496
00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 1: I'll try to. It's a long, it's a long complicated

497
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:15,440
Speaker 1: because it starts before we started base camp. Glenn came to.

498
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:22,920
Speaker 2: Visit with me, Glenn Evans, the then president of FMC, and.

499
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:28,520
Speaker 1: We had dinner and the conversation was what's next? Are

500
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: you going to come back? And I always appreciated that

501
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 1: Glenn always kept that all the branch.

502
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 2: Out of that. That's that is a special dude who

503
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:42,720
Speaker 2: you know you can leave with reasonable reason. I'm sure

504
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 2: you didn't just leave, but I can leave. But he

505
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:47,320
Speaker 2: keeps the door open for you. Says a lot about him,

506
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 2: says a lot about you too.

507
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:49,600
Speaker 1: I gave this.

508
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 2: If you sucked, he wouldn't let you come back.

509
00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:55,440
Speaker 1: I hope that's true. I gave notice, but I stayed

510
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: with the company for three months.

511
00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:00,600
Speaker 2: I understand that's what I'm saying. I gathered that, but.

512
00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 1: In that conversation my answer was no. But I really,

513
00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 1: if you're lucky in life, no matter what you're doing,

514
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 1: you collect people you just enjoy.

515
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 2: Being with or could not agree. It's something I say

516
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:18,040
Speaker 2: a lot collect. You collect these personalities along the way

517
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:22,960
Speaker 2: that you influence an influency that are mutually beneficial.

518
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: And Mike Mitchell is on that list, Glenn is on

519
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:31,959
Speaker 1: that list, Saint Nichols, John Marsalis, Bethany Cooper, and these

520
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:34,480
Speaker 1: are all people that I don't care if we were

521
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:36,720
Speaker 1: mucking out ditches. Those are the people I'd like to

522
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 1: do it with.

523
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 2: I get it.

524
00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:42,600
Speaker 1: So we started talking about what can we do that

525
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 1: matters and who can we do it with. But the

526
00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:51,240
Speaker 1: basic foundational thought, when you live in rural Mississippi and

527
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:54,560
Speaker 1: you get involved in your community in any way, you

528
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: meet kids who are smart, and they're hard workers, and

529
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 1: they're scrappers that you would meet in any other community

530
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 1: that you grew up on the coasts anywhere else. But

531
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:08,640
Speaker 1: if you're there long enough, the story often becomes if

532
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 1: they graduate from high school, you lose track of them

533
00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:13,080
Speaker 1: for a year or two. The next time you see them,

534
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 1: they're pushing a stroller and they don't have a job,

535
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,720
Speaker 1: or they're working a job that is just undervaluing their potential.

536
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:24,320
Speaker 2: And I think we're can agree that's a story all

537
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:26,160
Speaker 2: over rule America today.

538
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: Yes, So if you come from the East coast, and

539
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:35,840
Speaker 1: I could categorize myself as a poorish kid and what

540
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 1: the opportunities on the coasts. I left my parents' house

541
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 1: without any sort of financial anything, and I went to

542
00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:46,840
Speaker 1: a very expensive school and was able to borrow and

543
00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:50,520
Speaker 1: work my way through that and was able to springboard

544
00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:55,680
Speaker 1: from that education into a corporate environment that created all

545
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:59,840
Speaker 1: sorts of opportunities. And then I, despite my origins, I

546
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,720
Speaker 1: didn't feel any barriers. If I pushed hard enough, I

547
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,000
Speaker 1: felt like any door that was my way, I could

548
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 1: just break down. And then you move to a part

549
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:11,200
Speaker 1: of the country where you look around and that energy

550
00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 1: does not exist. So that's one half of the equation.

551
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:16,760
Speaker 1: You're just living in a community and you're looking around

552
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:23,040
Speaker 1: and you're thinking, why are these kids, why have they

553
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:27,319
Speaker 1: given up? So one half the equation. The other half

554
00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:32,319
Speaker 1: is you move from DC to a little part of Mississippi,

555
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:35,560
Speaker 1: and you're working for a company that's growing in the

556
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:39,160
Speaker 1: tech sector, and you spend all your time trying to

557
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:44,200
Speaker 1: find staff, trying to find them locally, failing, trying to

558
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 1: get them to relocate from places in the country where

559
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:50,120
Speaker 1: they are getting them on a prime example, to relocate

560
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:54,400
Speaker 1: to this place, and then most of them don't stick.

561
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:58,040
Speaker 2: And they are so concentrated in three or four years

562
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:03,200
Speaker 2: in our country. Correct becomes almost organic in those part

563
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 2: of the countries, but it prohibits growth in that sector

564
00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 2: to any other part of the country.

565
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:13,319
Speaker 1: Yes, and if you do have seeds of this type

566
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 1: of company that grow or try to grow outside of

567
00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:19,919
Speaker 1: those areas of our country, oftentimes not through any fault

568
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:22,919
Speaker 1: of their own, but because of that shortage of resources,

569
00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:25,479
Speaker 1: they just move to where they can find the talent.

570
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:27,840
Speaker 1: And so you have folks that are leaving this area

571
00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:29,919
Speaker 1: and they're going to Atlanta, they're going to Dallas, they're

572
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:31,480
Speaker 1: going to the San Francisco.

573
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:38,319
Speaker 2: So the issue you saw was disenchant enfranchisement, and a

574
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:44,279
Speaker 2: little bit of maybe not abject poverty, but certainly a

575
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:48,840
Speaker 2: little bit of economic hopelessness. And you saw a need

576
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:52,080
Speaker 2: and a company that you were in that you couldn't found.

577
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 1: Time, correct and if you look at the barrier, so

578
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:59,480
Speaker 1: it turned into a two problems they kind of complement

579
00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:03,440
Speaker 1: each other. We have bright folks, we have companies that

580
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:09,919
Speaker 1: need bright folks. The barrier is a skill set and money, right,

581
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:15,640
Speaker 1: And if money is the only barrier to acquiring that

582
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:19,680
Speaker 1: skill set, how much does that actually cost? Because we

583
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:22,360
Speaker 1: talk all day long about you know, the social safety

584
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 1: net and all these things, but wearing purely a business hat,

585
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:29,920
Speaker 1: how much does it cost? I know how much we

586
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 1: pay to move someone from DC to come to Mississippi

587
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 1: to work. I know how much you have to write

588
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:39,320
Speaker 1: a check to a sourcing agency or a talent agency

589
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:40,480
Speaker 1: to help you find those people.

590
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,160
Speaker 2: And how much does it cost to do that, relocate

591
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:44,279
Speaker 2: them and then lose them and do.

592
00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:46,400
Speaker 1: It again every time they leave, and you have a

593
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:50,160
Speaker 1: culture problem in your company, and just the hr costs

594
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:52,279
Speaker 1: of bringing on people and losing people and bring on people.

595
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:53,200
Speaker 2: Yeah. Cost.

596
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:56,320
Speaker 1: So when we Glenn Evans, who was the president of

597
00:36:56,360 --> 00:37:00,799
Speaker 1: the company I was working for, Fancy, who is just

598
00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:03,600
Speaker 1: a wonderful person. If we have time, all wax poetic

599
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:07,919
Speaker 1: about how wonderful Glenn is. We looked at that and thought,

600
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:13,560
Speaker 1: what if we could solve both of these problems and

601
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:16,560
Speaker 1: in the corporate space, what if it wasn't that expensive.

602
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:22,840
Speaker 1: Because the dollar to bring in a capable software developer

603
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:26,279
Speaker 1: is twenty We're talking twenty plus thousand dollars. You're paying

604
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:28,840
Speaker 1: a sourcing agency a percentage of their salary for the

605
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,400
Speaker 1: first six months, you're paying relocation costs, all those inherent

606
00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:34,480
Speaker 1: costs of just bringing them up to speed with the

607
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:35,799
Speaker 1: specific technology you use.

608
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:41,480
Speaker 2: So the cost associated with relocating and retaining verse the

609
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:44,239
Speaker 2: cost associated with just training right.

610
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:46,600
Speaker 1: And my wife is always teasing me that this idea

611
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:48,640
Speaker 1: is actually her idea. It's just a farmer's market, it's

612
00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:53,799
Speaker 1: just locally sourcing. But we so when we went out

613
00:37:55,239 --> 00:37:57,880
Speaker 1: is essentially to raise some money. We didn't make a

614
00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:00,960
Speaker 1: heart you know, strings pulling pitch of we want to

615
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:03,840
Speaker 1: do some good works. We went out with a clear

616
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:07,840
Speaker 1: we need to do an economic study. This is just

617
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:11,440
Speaker 1: business R and D. Can we solve this business problem?

618
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 1: And how much is it going to cost? And the

619
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:15,520
Speaker 1: unknowns were how much it was going to cost and

620
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:18,879
Speaker 1: if our young folks in Mississippi would be capable And

621
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:22,880
Speaker 1: we raised half a million dollars from an amazing assortment

622
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,520
Speaker 1: of philanthropists and private sector companies to run a three

623
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:27,120
Speaker 1: year pilot.

624
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:31,359
Speaker 2: The same way, which is the three year product is

625
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:36,080
Speaker 2: take these kids, not kids, I guess you got adults whatever.

626
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 2: I don't even know what you're supposed to call people

627
00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 2: that age. When when my kids were that age, I

628
00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:45,080
Speaker 2: called them idiots, So we call them whatever. But you

629
00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:50,799
Speaker 2: take this segment age of people that really are in

630
00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:53,439
Speaker 2: a place like Water Valley with not a whole lot

631
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:59,719
Speaker 2: of opportunity and options, and you're going to use that money.

632
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:03,160
Speaker 1: To train them to be what to train them to be?

633
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:05,879
Speaker 1: What's the software developers?

634
00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:11,719
Speaker 2: Software developers? So that sounds like something googly and you

635
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:16,279
Speaker 2: hooey from the West coast, Absolutely well, but we don't

636
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:16,799
Speaker 2: have those of water.

637
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:20,399
Speaker 1: It's also what the company that I moved to Mississippi

638
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:21,640
Speaker 1: to work with does.

639
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:24,279
Speaker 2: If that's not that's not the way it works. That

640
00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:28,239
Speaker 2: happens in Silicon Valley and where all the sport people live.

641
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:33,720
Speaker 1: That there's so much in that statement that is true

642
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:35,440
Speaker 1: in people's minds.

643
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:38,920
Speaker 2: I know, and the walls I do understand the walls that.

644
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:41,719
Speaker 1: We were in it. Here's an unrelated when I first

645
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:45,319
Speaker 1: came to Mississippi and I drove to the Jackson, Mississippi

646
00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:49,640
Speaker 1: Airport past a marketing campaign that someone had paid a

647
00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:52,879
Speaker 1: marketing company to put together. Somebody had paid for the billboards,

648
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 1: and the theme of it was yes we can read.

649
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 1: This is the one that always pops in my mind.

650
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:03,840
Speaker 1: Yes we can read. Some of us can even write,

651
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:07,160
Speaker 1: And then it would show some URM mean, And I thought,

652
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:12,400
Speaker 1: the marketing campaign is reinforcing The first statement they make

653
00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:15,279
Speaker 1: to you is a reinforcement of the negative stereotypes that

654
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:18,920
Speaker 1: every person that grows up in Mississippi is just forced

655
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 1: to take in that people underestimate you.

656
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:25,760
Speaker 2: You talk about that chip on your shoulder. Imagine being

657
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,480
Speaker 2: a born and bred, second or third generation Mississippian and

658
00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:31,680
Speaker 2: hearing that crop all your life.

659
00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 1: And that's supposed to be the uplifting part.

660
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:35,440
Speaker 2: It is the uplifting part.

661
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:38,760
Speaker 1: And I so when you talk about chip on your shoulder,

662
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:43,279
Speaker 1: I love an underdog, Yeah, because I genuine were one.

663
00:40:43,640 --> 00:40:45,239
Speaker 1: And I don't know where it comes from, but I

664
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:50,920
Speaker 1: genuine like anything is possible. The question is how. And

665
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:52,959
Speaker 1: then once you identify the how it's are you willing

666
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:53,120
Speaker 1: to do?

667
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:55,879
Speaker 2: It has to be from your grandmother uprooting five kids

668
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:58,640
Speaker 2: and going to Vermont and starting a That's that's some

669
00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:03,560
Speaker 2: genetics in there. Okay. So we got five hundred thousand dollars,

670
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:07,400
Speaker 2: we got half million dollars, and we got all these

671
00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:11,440
Speaker 2: kids that you're going to make one more time computer

672
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:17,800
Speaker 2: programmers in Water Valley, Mississippi. Correct, because that makes lots

673
00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:21,160
Speaker 2: of sense. And it does make sense. But you know

674
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:24,359
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, nobody's thinking we can go to Water Valley,

675
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:27,600
Speaker 2: Mississippi and recruit computer programmers to our companies across the

676
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:32,760
Speaker 2: country except you. And so you start what you called

677
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:38,120
Speaker 2: base camp. And base camp was a school to teach

678
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:41,280
Speaker 2: them this stuff. Right? How many people in the first

679
00:41:41,360 --> 00:41:43,720
Speaker 2: base camp class above the grocery.

680
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:45,480
Speaker 1: Store started fourteen and graduated twelve?

681
00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:49,280
Speaker 2: And how long did it take those twelve to graduate?

682
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:50,640
Speaker 2: How long was the curriculum?

683
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:53,839
Speaker 1: It's eleven and a half months, one year, one year,

684
00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:54,880
Speaker 1: full time for and.

685
00:41:56,480 --> 00:42:01,719
Speaker 2: Completely paid for by your donations. And those twelve that graduated,

686
00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 2: how many of them got jobs within five months?

687
00:42:05,160 --> 00:42:07,960
Speaker 1: All of them got internships before graduation.

688
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:10,560
Speaker 2: Okay, And so.

689
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:13,200
Speaker 1: They went to FedEx, they went to Ceaspire, and they

690
00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:13,760
Speaker 1: went to Core.

691
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:19,319
Speaker 2: Lotter and what kind of income does a computer programer

692
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:22,040
Speaker 2: with these people's background after a couple of years in

693
00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:25,359
Speaker 2: that business, what is what can I annual income can

694
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:26,040
Speaker 2: they expect?

695
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:30,640
Speaker 1: So they're starting between forty six and fifty two thousand dollars.

696
00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:36,600
Speaker 2: Okay, for those of you listening in Manhattan and LA,

697
00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:40,360
Speaker 2: forty six to fifty thousand dollars does not sound like

698
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:42,360
Speaker 2: a lot of money. But let me tell you something

699
00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:46,319
Speaker 2: in and around Water Valley and Memphis that is a

700
00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:50,879
Speaker 2: good living. And we're talking about kids who weren't going

701
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:56,880
Speaker 2: to college, had a Water Valley high school education and

702
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 2: are now starting in that world. And in ten to

703
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:03,840
Speaker 2: fifteen years, it just keeps getting better and better and

704
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:04,640
Speaker 2: better from there.

705
00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:08,160
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And I just I pulled open my notebook because

706
00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 1: I'm working on some grants for some of our water

707
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:11,160
Speaker 1: associations here.

708
00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:13,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, well give us up and give us the dope.

709
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:16,320
Speaker 1: And I just was looking at the median home income.

710
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:19,640
Speaker 1: Tell me, and in Water Valley it's forty five thousand,

711
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:22,800
Speaker 1: In Coffeeville it's thirty seven thousand, and in Oakland is

712
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:25,600
Speaker 1: twenty six. So as you get a little more rural

713
00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:27,800
Speaker 1: from this town, and this is a thirty four hundred.

714
00:43:28,719 --> 00:43:29,880
Speaker 2: What's the United States?

715
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:31,640
Speaker 1: The United States is sixty seven to five.

716
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, but if you took away the top mostly coastal,

717
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:40,480
Speaker 2: but you would have to include maybe Chicago and Minneapolis.

718
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:45,520
Speaker 2: But if you took away the top twenty cities mostly coastal,

719
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:50,560
Speaker 2: and included in that probably I guess Minneapolis in Chicago

720
00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:53,120
Speaker 2: out of that number, I bet that sixty seven goes

721
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:55,239
Speaker 2: down below fifty there.

722
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:58,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you take the musks out of those those equations.

723
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:00,840
Speaker 2: That would be just a guess. I have no data

724
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:03,080
Speaker 2: to back that up, but that mood makes sense. And

725
00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:08,840
Speaker 2: the point is your people are from Water Valley, Mississippi.

726
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:11,640
Speaker 1: Well, we recruit it's a fifty mile radius.

727
00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:16,759
Speaker 2: Okay, Now they're from rural North Mississippi. Yes, going to

728
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:20,960
Speaker 2: a one year, paid for free school, not leaving with

729
00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:25,960
Speaker 2: student loans and debt and all that correct, and making

730
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:30,000
Speaker 2: more money than the vast majority of college graduates from

731
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:32,120
Speaker 2: the University Mississippi twenty minutes up the road.

732
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:36,560
Speaker 1: Yes, I hate to cast dispersions.

733
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:40,280
Speaker 2: It's not dispersions. Facts are facts. I'm pat and red headed.

734
00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:42,080
Speaker 2: That's not dispersion, it's just the truth.

735
00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 1: It's a it's a harsh real.

736
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 2: It actually starting to get gray. Now, I mean it's worse.

737
00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:49,040
Speaker 2: I'm fat and almost red headed, but I have hair,

738
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:53,960
Speaker 2: so yeah, but you're so tall nobody can see up

739
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:56,680
Speaker 2: there anyway, don't worry about it. Just my kids. Yeah,

740
00:44:56,719 --> 00:44:59,680
Speaker 2: but that's the truth. That's an amazing thing, and that's

741
00:44:59,719 --> 00:45:00,279
Speaker 2: your one.

742
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:05,400
Speaker 1: So we ran the first two classes and completely transparent

743
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:07,160
Speaker 1: to all the folks, particularly the folks that were writing

744
00:45:07,200 --> 00:45:11,160
Speaker 1: the checks, which is this is this working or not?

745
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:14,000
Speaker 2: Is it working? Of course it was working. The people

746
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:16,480
Speaker 2: writing the checks. Were they corporate sponsors? And were some

747
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:19,719
Speaker 2: of your people getting placed in their businesses? Yes, well

748
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:24,760
Speaker 2: they're paying for their own people that they can't hire.

749
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:26,320
Speaker 2: That's a great thing.

750
00:45:26,239 --> 00:45:28,279
Speaker 1: For them, it is. We didn't know if it was

751
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:32,640
Speaker 1: going to work. So we started with three different curriculums

752
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 1: that were designed based on honestly the aptitude of the students.

753
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 1: Because they're coming out of Mississippi public schools. We didn't

754
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:40,279
Speaker 1: know what kind of gaps that were going to have

755
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:42,680
Speaker 1: to fill. We didn't know how much we could push them,

756
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:46,719
Speaker 1: and we knew to be market ready. If you think

757
00:45:46,760 --> 00:45:50,400
Speaker 1: of the students not as you know, warm and fuzzy,

758
00:45:50,640 --> 00:45:54,360
Speaker 1: but as a product that the companies have to buy,

759
00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:57,200
Speaker 1: they have to buy into the concept of educating them.

760
00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:00,000
Speaker 1: And it's only a success if they buy the output,

761
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:03,040
Speaker 1: which means they hire, and they only will buy two

762
00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:06,440
Speaker 1: times in a row if they're pleased with the value

763
00:46:06,560 --> 00:46:09,160
Speaker 1: that they receive when that person joins the workforce.

764
00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:13,240
Speaker 2: That sounds like business to me. Yes, kind of ABC's.

765
00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:16,520
Speaker 1: And that's a lot of unknowns when we see it our.

766
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:18,560
Speaker 2: First, but you're testing it out, and you knew with

767
00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:20,200
Speaker 2: the five hundred thousand you were going to do a

768
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:21,320
Speaker 2: three year test out.

769
00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:24,000
Speaker 1: So we had we could stress test. We could not

770
00:46:24,239 --> 00:46:27,480
Speaker 1: worry about making big mistakes.

771
00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:33,719
Speaker 2: Okay, so drum roll this year? This year? How many

772
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:35,479
Speaker 2: students this year?

773
00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:40,759
Speaker 1: We have thirty thirty something and this will be what

774
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:44,120
Speaker 1: number one? This is business seventh. So we talked about

775
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:46,600
Speaker 1: them as version software development. So this is version seven

776
00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:48,200
Speaker 1: of the base camp classes.

777
00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:52,040
Speaker 2: So you've had to have one hunder graduates.

778
00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:54,880
Speaker 1: By this point there. I think it's high eighties, high eighties.

779
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:59,280
Speaker 2: It'll be over one hundred after this class. Yes, what's

780
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:02,560
Speaker 2: do you have the numbers? What's the percent of people

781
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:04,000
Speaker 2: that have gotten jobs?

782
00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:07,480
Speaker 1: And oh yeah, the employment rate is still about ninety

783
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:08,000
Speaker 1: five percent.

784
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:16,239
Speaker 2: Ninety five percent and ninety five percent of people starting

785
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:21,239
Speaker 2: around forty five to fifty two. And my guess is

786
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:24,560
Speaker 2: these group of twelve who've been doing it for seven years,

787
00:47:24,600 --> 00:47:26,640
Speaker 2: I've had opportunities to advance and move up in the

788
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:28,280
Speaker 2: company and make war there.

789
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:30,600
Speaker 1: Yes, so it's fun to see their promotions they trickle

790
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:33,600
Speaker 1: in through LinkedIn or I get emails from some of them.

791
00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:34,600
Speaker 2: How rewarding.

792
00:47:36,280 --> 00:47:37,000
Speaker 1: It's a feel good.

793
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:50,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll be right back. I got the math behind

794
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:54,600
Speaker 2: there's these kids. I got the math behind the businesses

795
00:47:54,640 --> 00:48:00,640
Speaker 2: need it, Okay, but these kids, why'd you give a crap?

796
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:05,719
Speaker 2: Other than as a young man, you spend a lot

797
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:08,280
Speaker 2: of time with your mom and old people's houses.

798
00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:12,800
Speaker 1: That's an interesting So I also spent a lot of time,

799
00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:18,760
Speaker 1: starting at eight, working in every crevice around my school schedule.

800
00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:21,880
Speaker 2: No, I get that, But that doesn't create empathy.

801
00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:28,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's I have this deeply ingrained belief

802
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:32,000
Speaker 1: that everyone should get to do whatever they want to

803
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: if they're willing to do the work. And I've always

804
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:41,400
Speaker 1: thought that and Mississippi kind of broke me of that

805
00:48:41,560 --> 00:48:46,799
Speaker 1: opinion and made it clear that no, that's just being

806
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:49,239
Speaker 1: able to feel like you're somewhere near the bottom and

807
00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:52,640
Speaker 1: looking up and feeling like it's just a climb is

808
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:53,280
Speaker 1: a privilege.

809
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:57,640
Speaker 2: Manassas High School broke me. Bro Yeah. I coached there

810
00:48:57,640 --> 00:49:02,760
Speaker 2: for seven years, and I always believed, because of where

811
00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:06,680
Speaker 2: I came from that if you wanted to work hard

812
00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:10,440
Speaker 2: and knuckle down and do the right thing, this country

813
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:13,880
Speaker 2: offered you a free education and opportunities for success, you

814
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:19,040
Speaker 2: just had to go work for it. And the maybe

815
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:25,160
Speaker 2: unpopular and inconvenient truth is that's crap. There are some

816
00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:29,200
Speaker 2: people who have all of those things and their culture

817
00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:34,719
Speaker 2: and society oftentimes won't turn them loose, and they don't

818
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:38,759
Speaker 2: know how to get loose. And I have found if

819
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:43,280
Speaker 2: you help give them a roadmap. I give them a handout,

820
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:47,920
Speaker 2: but a handout that oftentimes they can find success. And

821
00:49:47,960 --> 00:49:51,120
Speaker 2: it sounds like to me, that's exactly what you've experienced here.

822
00:49:51,960 --> 00:49:55,960
Speaker 1: Yes, this isn't a gift, Like there's a big component

823
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:57,720
Speaker 1: that that's a gift to each one of our students.

824
00:49:57,719 --> 00:50:03,040
Speaker 1: And I like that there there are no strings attached.

825
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:06,520
Speaker 1: And that's the biggest impediment that we have, the trust

826
00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:10,640
Speaker 1: impediment in Mississippi when we say are you willing to

827
00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 1: work with this because if you are, we'll give it

828
00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:17,239
Speaker 1: to you. And everyone sits back and says, yeah, but

829
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:22,480
Speaker 1: where's the button? And I like, and Glenn and the

830
00:50:22,520 --> 00:50:23,880
Speaker 1: rest of the board of base Camp has made it

831
00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:26,160
Speaker 1: clear that this is a gift. It's a karmic gift.

832
00:50:26,239 --> 00:50:29,200
Speaker 1: It's a however you want to structure it, but to

833
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:34,359
Speaker 1: succeed here, it's forty hours for the core base Camp

834
00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:37,640
Speaker 1: students every week for a year. You don't get the

835
00:50:37,640 --> 00:50:40,200
Speaker 1: big breaks, you don't get the months off in the summer.

836
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:42,560
Speaker 1: It is a show up at eight thirty, leave at

837
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:44,439
Speaker 1: four thirty, and work your tail off.

838
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:48,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, but at the end of it, look what you get. Sure,

839
00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:54,720
Speaker 2: and it's an opportunity that many of these folks would

840
00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:56,200
Speaker 2: never otherwise have.

841
00:50:57,640 --> 00:51:04,000
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, I agree with you. However, even that is if

842
00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:06,560
Speaker 1: they have come through a public school system that's never

843
00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:11,280
Speaker 1: pushed them, and they have come from a social structure

844
00:51:11,719 --> 00:51:13,520
Speaker 1: that has not told them if you work hard, you

845
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:16,680
Speaker 1: can get places. The number of Temple they don't see it.

846
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:19,920
Speaker 1: They don't see it. So we do things again that

847
00:51:20,239 --> 00:51:22,719
Speaker 1: wouldn't have occurred to me in the early days. We

848
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:26,040
Speaker 1: take students out when we can to visit places of

849
00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:31,520
Speaker 1: business to reinforce the goal. And I thought, I'm a

850
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:34,200
Speaker 1: good communicator, and I met For the first few years,

851
00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:37,200
Speaker 1: I met every single prospective student. I knew everybody very well.

852
00:51:37,239 --> 00:51:38,960
Speaker 1: I got to say all the words to them over

853
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:41,000
Speaker 1: and over about what we were going to do, where

854
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:43,680
Speaker 1: it was going to lead. And the first class, we

855
00:51:43,719 --> 00:51:45,839
Speaker 1: took them on a short field trip and we took

856
00:51:45,840 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 1: them up to the F and C offices, and I

857
00:51:50,520 --> 00:51:54,880
Speaker 1: had been talking about what working in the software development

858
00:51:54,880 --> 00:51:56,960
Speaker 1: culture was like, what your day job would be like.

859
00:51:57,200 --> 00:51:59,600
Speaker 1: We had had guest speakers. But they walked into that

860
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:02,000
Speaker 1: building and they saw a ping pong table, and they

861
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:04,200
Speaker 1: saw cubicles, and they saw a snack room, and they

862
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:08,200
Speaker 1: saw people like leaning over cubicles and just talking and

863
00:52:08,239 --> 00:52:10,759
Speaker 1: they were all shell shocked. And I didn't understand what

864
00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:12,920
Speaker 1: was going on until I got them back the facility.

865
00:52:13,000 --> 00:52:14,640
Speaker 1: Can I guess absolutely.

866
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:19,600
Speaker 2: That the public school systems and their entire lives were

867
00:52:19,640 --> 00:52:24,200
Speaker 2: so regimentally institutionalized that they didn't know people could exist

868
00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:24,759
Speaker 2: like that.

869
00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:29,560
Speaker 1: Yes, they walked in that right, You're right. I finally

870
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:33,239
Speaker 1: got them talking when we got back, and their expectation

871
00:52:33,960 --> 00:52:39,960
Speaker 1: after all, my lovely fuzzy words were Soviet era lines

872
00:52:39,960 --> 00:52:41,640
Speaker 1: of machines, keep your head down.

873
00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:46,719
Speaker 2: Never having been exposed. You know, I can't help but

874
00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:52,880
Speaker 2: think when people hear the success of what's happened here,

875
00:52:54,120 --> 00:52:59,839
Speaker 2: especially throughout the the flyover states, that there's not going

876
00:52:59,880 --> 00:53:04,160
Speaker 2: to be one or some group of people compelled to

877
00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:07,719
Speaker 2: say if they could do it Water Valley, Mississippi. You know,

878
00:53:10,400 --> 00:53:14,239
Speaker 2: my thought is, you know, just from a business perspective,

879
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:18,640
Speaker 2: there's scale to this idea. This is completely doable in

880
00:53:18,719 --> 00:53:20,000
Speaker 2: other places.

881
00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:22,320
Speaker 1: It absolutely is, and there if I gave a little pitch,

882
00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:25,080
Speaker 1: if there's anybody.

883
00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:26,680
Speaker 2: I'm actually trying to set up a pitch here.

884
00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:32,080
Speaker 1: Bro if there is anybody who feels like dedicating their

885
00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:35,719
Speaker 1: time and energy to this. We're an open book, so

886
00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:39,000
Speaker 1: we have We'll share everything. We'll share our finances, we'll

887
00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:41,640
Speaker 1: share any part of the story. We'll share what it

888
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:45,759
Speaker 1: took to work here in our curriculum and anything else.

889
00:53:47,320 --> 00:53:49,600
Speaker 1: I just I won't sugarcoat it. It's a lot of work,

890
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:52,239
Speaker 1: and we have a board of seven folks. I'm one

891
00:53:52,280 --> 00:53:57,279
Speaker 1: of seven, and we donate thousands of hours because we

892
00:53:57,360 --> 00:54:00,440
Speaker 1: believe in the outcomes and the purpose of this entity.

893
00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:02,400
Speaker 1: So if you have a group like that that you

894
00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:04,600
Speaker 1: enjoy working with, that should be happy to dig ditches with,

895
00:54:04,640 --> 00:54:07,560
Speaker 1: because some days it'll feel like digging a ditch. Reach out.

896
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:10,840
Speaker 2: I speak a lot about about my experiences, and I

897
00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:13,880
Speaker 2: usually do Q and a's after the speeches and I

898
00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:17,800
Speaker 2: get questions. But the number one question I get that's

899
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:21,080
Speaker 2: never asked by the audience, but they always walk up afterwards,

900
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:25,680
Speaker 2: is how did you get started? You know? And what

901
00:54:25,719 --> 00:54:28,960
Speaker 2: you just said answers the question. If you want to

902
00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:33,399
Speaker 2: get started, call Caaking. That's it.

903
00:54:34,560 --> 00:54:35,480
Speaker 1: I prefer email.

904
00:54:37,280 --> 00:54:39,400
Speaker 2: You know it all right. If you want to get started,

905
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:40,520
Speaker 2: contact Kegan.

906
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:45,160
Speaker 1: My email address is Kagan kag N at base Campcoding

907
00:54:45,239 --> 00:54:47,919
Speaker 1: Academy dot org. And I would love to say we've

908
00:54:47,920 --> 00:54:53,080
Speaker 1: had a few code Crew in Memphis has taken this

909
00:54:53,239 --> 00:54:56,480
Speaker 1: concept and they dug in. They came down here, they

910
00:54:56,520 --> 00:54:59,600
Speaker 1: audited our classroom. They wanted to see exactly what was working,

911
00:55:00,080 --> 00:55:02,840
Speaker 1: and they've had a successful version of base Camp.

912
00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:06,680
Speaker 2: That's amazing Memphis. So it's already it's like putting a

913
00:55:06,680 --> 00:55:11,640
Speaker 2: grimlin in water. It's popping. Good for you, Kegan. Yes,

914
00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:17,560
Speaker 2: the truth is you're an average blue collar kid from

915
00:55:17,680 --> 00:55:23,680
Speaker 2: Vermont who showed up in DC and decided that was crazy,

916
00:55:24,560 --> 00:55:29,680
Speaker 2: moved to Oxford, moved to Water Valley, helped reviatialize an

917
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:35,279
Speaker 2: entire downtown area that was basically gone, and in doing so,

918
00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:40,839
Speaker 2: over the last seven years, created a school that has

919
00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:44,520
Speaker 2: made an opportunity for a bunch of kids from a

920
00:55:44,640 --> 00:55:49,359
Speaker 2: lost area in North Mississippi. That is phenomenal. Bro, that's

921
00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:54,000
Speaker 2: what it is. You can humiliate it. And all by

922
00:55:54,040 --> 00:55:56,680
Speaker 2: the way, the all shucks thing you got going on,

923
00:55:56,840 --> 00:56:00,319
Speaker 2: that's pretty Mississippi. That's pretty good. You got that down.

924
00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:03,600
Speaker 2: Maybe there's some of that Vermont too, but the all

925
00:56:03,640 --> 00:56:05,799
Speaker 2: shucks thing in Mississippi is pretty good. But you get

926
00:56:05,840 --> 00:56:11,200
Speaker 2: all shucks, that's all you want. That is a phenomenal story.

927
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:15,600
Speaker 2: And it's not even I mean, where if the books

928
00:56:15,840 --> 00:56:18,759
Speaker 2: thirty five chapters were, I get this sense we're in

929
00:56:18,840 --> 00:56:21,080
Speaker 2: chapter sixteen there.

930
00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:24,120
Speaker 1: So I think the all shucks comes a lot from

931
00:56:24,480 --> 00:56:31,840
Speaker 1: me and my sense of satisfaction about anything lasts for

932
00:56:31,880 --> 00:56:35,799
Speaker 1: about a day once successful, and that could be a

933
00:56:35,920 --> 00:56:39,600
Speaker 1: two years to move on next, what's next? I don't

934
00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:41,000
Speaker 1: get a lot and I don't know where that comes from.

935
00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:42,480
Speaker 1: But I don't get a lot of patting myself on

936
00:56:42,520 --> 00:56:46,120
Speaker 1: the back, get it, and I honestly think that would

937
00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:50,880
Speaker 1: probably the moment you pause to reflect. You've picked your

938
00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:52,319
Speaker 1: head up and you need to put it back down

939
00:56:52,880 --> 00:56:58,800
Speaker 1: and get back to work. So it is it's lovely

940
00:56:58,840 --> 00:57:00,759
Speaker 1: to hear in a synopsis that, oh, this is all

941
00:57:00,760 --> 00:57:02,480
Speaker 1: the stuff that's happened so far. I want to say

942
00:57:02,520 --> 00:57:04,719
Speaker 1: something to you. I am, and I know.

943
00:57:04,640 --> 00:57:07,239
Speaker 2: You've heard it, and I know you've done interviews, and

944
00:57:07,719 --> 00:57:13,359
Speaker 2: you know, take it seriously. I've been around a lot

945
00:57:13,360 --> 00:57:15,480
Speaker 2: of people and interview a lot of people. Your story

946
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:20,040
Speaker 2: is so interesting, and what is exciting to me is

947
00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:23,440
Speaker 2: I know there's a what's up next for you, and

948
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:26,400
Speaker 2: there's no doubt you're going to do a lot more.

949
00:57:26,680 --> 00:57:30,280
Speaker 2: But the title of the show is an Army of

950
00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:35,320
Speaker 2: normal Folks, and it's because I am so inspired by

951
00:57:35,400 --> 00:57:40,040
Speaker 2: normal folks that do extraordinary things. I'm not really inspired

952
00:57:40,080 --> 00:57:44,560
Speaker 2: by the people who hog all the limelight. And I'm

953
00:57:44,600 --> 00:57:48,280
Speaker 2: compelled to tell those stories because I'm hoping those stories

954
00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:53,040
Speaker 2: will be an incentive for other folks to say, Yeah,

955
00:57:53,080 --> 00:57:54,920
Speaker 2: you don't have to come for money, you don't have

956
00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:57,440
Speaker 2: to be somebody special, you don't have to All you

957
00:57:57,480 --> 00:58:01,720
Speaker 2: got to do is try and involve and and make

958
00:58:01,880 --> 00:58:04,560
Speaker 2: a difference in your community and your society. And you,

959
00:58:04,680 --> 00:58:09,120
Speaker 2: my friend, have absolutely done that. And you are a

960
00:58:09,200 --> 00:58:11,920
Speaker 2: part of the Army of normal folks. And I'm inspired

961
00:58:11,960 --> 00:58:14,480
Speaker 2: by you, and I know your story is going to

962
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:15,440
Speaker 2: inspire listeners.

963
00:58:17,400 --> 00:58:19,080
Speaker 1: Thank you, you're very well.

964
00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:26,800
Speaker 2: And thank you for joining us this week. If Kagan

965
00:58:26,920 --> 00:58:29,919
Speaker 2: or another guest has inspired you in general, or better yet,

966
00:58:29,960 --> 00:58:34,720
Speaker 2: to take action by heck, helping revitalize your own talent,

967
00:58:34,840 --> 00:58:38,840
Speaker 2: by starting a version of base Camp coding Academy, by

968
00:58:38,960 --> 00:58:43,720
Speaker 2: donating to them, or something else entirely, I really want

969
00:58:43,760 --> 00:58:47,000
Speaker 2: to hear about it. Please write me anytime at Bill

970
00:58:47,240 --> 00:58:52,120
Speaker 2: at normalfolks dot us. I promise you I'll respond. And

971
00:58:52,200 --> 00:58:55,280
Speaker 2: if you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends that

972
00:58:55,400 --> 00:58:59,760
Speaker 2: on social, subscribe to the podcast, rate review it, come

973
00:58:59,840 --> 00:59:04,040
Speaker 2: up premium member at normalfolks dot us. Do all of

974
00:59:04,080 --> 00:59:07,680
Speaker 2: the things that will help us grow an army of

975
00:59:07,800 --> 00:59:11,560
Speaker 2: normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week.