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Welcome to the Nobody Knows podcast with Callie Zamzow. Join us for conversations with local changemakers and hear the stories that don't always get told. It'll be honest, messy and beautiful. Touching and humorous. Slow down for a glass and pull up a chair. This is the nobody knows podcast. Welcome to Nobody Knows. I'm your host, Callie Zamzow, and it's Berry week at Zamzows. We're finally here. So excited about it. And that is what the tip of the week is going to be about. Several tips of the week. So, we are kind of in the danger zone as far as where we're going to be. You can buy your berries, but you probably just pay attention to the weather. You can even put them in the ground, but you want to really be cautious because you don't want to accidentally have there be a freeze and lose your crop. So, so be very careful about that. I wanted to just give you a couple of planting tips as far as that's concerned. With with berries. A lot of times we have, people who will plant their berry plants in the shade, and that means no success. So first things first. Choose a good spot that sunny the berries are going to want 6 to 8 hours of sun, so she's a good spot. Make sure that you have good drainage and, in your soil. And because we have a lot of clay, if you just plunk them in your garden and you haven't done much with it, you might have some issues with that because you need to have you don't want to have any root rot with those. So sometimes we always suggest that you, amend the soil with some compost or maybe even do a raised bed where you can control the soil a little bit better. Fertilizing is always a big issue. We recommend that you use our chicken soup for the soil, and that's a, That's a Zamzows product. It is a low nitrogen, so that you're not going to have the issue of growing a plant that's really, really big that doesn't have any berries. So those are some baseline tips for you. We we also want to make sure that you're keeping your soil acidic. So those are some of the things you want to be thinking about. And in the beginning you want to use as much as you want to leave the flowers on and have berries right away. If you pick those off, then the energy in the plant will go into building those roots and building the plant up. If you can be patient, then the next year you're going to get a lot better crop. So it may not be that you're going to get berries right away if you do that. But plants you know, focus on the roots. Focus on getting the plant healthy. And then you can have some berries next year. So there's your tip of the week or various tips of the week. Thank you for listening to those. And if you have other questions, you can always come into the store. And during Berry week, we have all sorts of things that we can tell you about and teach you about. And I think there are sales going on and everything else. So please come into any one of our 12 stores and we'll happily help you with that. Okay. I am very excited to introduce our guest today. I am speaking with Tommy Ahlquist. He is the CEO of all Quest. He's a former emergency room physician. He's a serial entrepreneur and a massive community leader. And I was on his podcast. So now I'm very excited that he gets to be on mine. Welcome to the studio, Tommy. It's so great to be. I'm so used to. I want to hear more about berries. What's the easiest berry to grow? Oh, gosh. It to me, I think. Well, I'll tell you, I, I have some raspberries that are like volunteers and you can't even get rid of those things. Like, they are just. They're so easy. The problem with raspberries is that you have to pay attention to what kind they are, because some of them fruit on the second years and others of you know, are that mobile blackberries. Easy. Yes, blackberries are considered a weed for some people. So yes, they can be very easy. But again, if you're trying to be purposeful with it, you know there are some things you can do to make it easier for you. But once they get established, you almost can't get rid of them. Love it. Yeah. Good stuff, I love berries. I think it's kind of a little so good for you, but they're so good for you. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can eat. You can eat as many as you want, even when you're fat. Exactly. No guilt, no shame. That's my go to. It's so true. My latest thing has been, freezing blueberries. Oh, yeah. And just like, it's, like, the greatest little snack. And. Yeah, the joy of berries. It's good stuff. I think it also kind of reminds me of childhood. Because you eat a lot of berries when you're kids. Like, yeah, we would just go into a garden and just come inside and we just have berries smashed. I'm guessing that your garden was a little different than mine. Well, I don't know. Did you have a big garden? We had a we had a pretty good. I should say we had a pretty good garden. Yeah. Yeah. My my dad's always been a gardener a long time Zamzows customers. Big gardens. My garden is puny compared to his. Well, you have to know what you're doing on some of this stuff. I mean it's so easy stuff. But lettuces and some of those sort of things cabbage and yeah I, you know he's it's so funny you say that because those are actually pretty easy except for I'm the same way you are because of the seasons. Like I'm. If it's the heat of the sun, I can, I can grow anything. Yeah, but those things that are on the live on the. Yeah. And I'm like I don't know. Yeah. That's you know my total plant things in the fall that just come up in the spring and I'll be like how what did you do there. How do you make that work. We're kind of down to tomatoes, cucumbers. And every other year a squash. Zucchini. Then why do we plant zucchini? Because we can't eat that many. I know it's so true. And then you just give them away to people. Peppers? Yes. There are people that have that salsa garden as we like to say. Can't wait. Yeah. Time to do it again. Yeah, I, I'm really excited about. Well, and this year we actually redid our garden and we got because everything was in-ground. And it's really hard when you do things in ground because there's so many weeds and you can't keep up with them. So we got raised beds and we just put them together. Haven't planted well for for getting there, planting them. But anyway, I just had a really cool story about that happened to me. Yeah. So when we moved in our new house about four years ago, I got on Facebook Marketplace and I found a guy that puts in boxes. Oh, he's got boxes. And I read into a story and it was this little older guy. And so I called him, I said, hey, I need like seven of these boxes. And he said, he said, absolutely. And I got it scheduled. But when he showed up, he brought his granddaughters with them. Okay. Oh, and so I was working on the farm while he was putting them in. And it was the coolest thing to see this grandpa and these granddaughters working together. And it was just it was like stuff like that. I'm like, I like this a lot. Yeah. So at the end of it, I went in and I told you guys, I need to find some cash because I want to give these girls a big tip for why they're doing it. And so that was years ago. And at the, at a basketball game recently, Boise State game, I had a guy come up, chase me out, and he's like, hey, he's like, I had to talk to you. He's like, my dad passed away and suddenly. But he's the guy that installed those boxes. Oh, wow. And he's like, my daughter still talk about the tip you gave him and how special was it? Was you just never know some of those things. But I never told that story to anybody. And he's proud of it right now. But sometimes you just never know. Yeah. Garden boxes. But the generational thing is a big deal. I think gardening and doing this stuff, that's when we can get our grandkids and involved and teach them something. They're desperate for real stuff. They are. I agree. Yeah, it's down. IPad down. Yes. Teach me how to plant a berry. And it's I think what I'm seeing with my own daughter is that it's, it's almost easier to do gardening with my dad than it is with me, because with me, it's still like it's work. But with grandpa, it's like I'm helping grandpa and it's fun and so and and it's a different garden. It's at his house, not our house. And she gets to do it when she wants to. She did all last summer. And I like that. Yeah, it was great. I kind of a pre-college thing for her, which was I think it was really. She still brings it up. Yeah, it was really good stuff. Okay, well, we've already jumped right in. This is fantastic. Will you back up for just a moment in case? Let's talk to those two people in the valley who don't know who you are. Could you just give a high level about. I can't, but, you know, it's funny. I gave a talk earlier today and I was like one speaker in a lineup and of all the people before me were like late 30s and 40 was like the oldest guy. So I'm sitting there thinking, I'm the old guy. Now, I know when did that happen? And I'm like, and literally the room full of people, I'm like, people probably don't even know that. I did eight the main and I did like City Center. I think we are past that now. Yeah. Just so you get old and then you're like, yes, we've been here a long time doing things and it's been great. Started in medicine in the 90s here, Saint Luke's and worked in the air and had an amazing career in, in medicine. It was my I'd gone to school in Idaho. Loved it. Ricks College is now BYU Idaho, but, man, I was on the basketball team there, and we all really hunted every day. We fished every day for life. So when it was time to look for where I was going, I'm like, there's got to be a place in Idaho. Came here and just absolutely loved the air. Love Saint Luke's. And then started, well, I my dad, it's longer it seems weird that I went from medicine development but had had some exposure to it. My father had, was an electrician and, and a real heart. He he framed houses, pump gas. He was an electrician when I was growing up. He was the most. He worked at Kennecott Copper. So very blue collar, very, very risk averse. Corp, you know, company guy, but hard worker. So when he when I was 16, he came home, he's like, hey, this development company wants me to work for him. He was he was wiring, he was wiring a strip mall in a little teeny town, on the side as an electrician. And they said, hey, you're pretty smart. Will you be our kind of project oversight guy? And they liked him, and they hired him. Huge step for him. So he went to work for a developer when I was 16. And so I'm like, oh, that would be cool. That would be a cool thing to do on the side. Yeah. Shift working. They are development. So it really started that way. And I called him and I said, hey, I think I've got porticos was my first project off of, Franklin and Eagle Road. Sure. That's a heck of a first project. Yeah, I'm going to say, oh, that little thing. So I was working shifts in the E.R., and I would leave in my scrubs, and I was knocking on doors, buying up all those houses there, and, and it was it was incredible. It was a crazy experience, actually. I could write a book on how I took that whole corner down while I was an ER doc. And then I called my dad and I said, dad, I need help. Quit your job, come up here. He's like, I'm not quitting my job. And that was 20 something years ago now. I came up 21 years ago. That's wild. And, so and then it just that's kind of taken off. And we've been very, you know, you work hard and you, you know, just develop really good relationships and try to honor those relationships and do people a good job. And it's just grown into a lot of development, a lot of other businesses too. But it's it's been fun. I it's so good. Look, can we talk a little bit about the work hard thing? Yeah. Because I, I, I love the rising generation, so I'm not being critical of the rising generation. I. However, there does seem to be when you talk about work hard at all, somebody we need to do is kind of see what you've done to say. Yeah. Clearly. Clearly you work hard. How what what caused that? What how did how did you get to be that that person who makes that choice. Because, you know, we don't have to choose these things. We can decide what we're going to do. Yes, some of it. And I think this is true for you too, because I've had the pleasure of talking to you on our podcast and I think when you're blessed with and surrounded with first the DNA of people that just work. Yeah. And then you, you see these people just working and they're happy and they love it. Right? That's the thing infectious. And you find out that it's hard, but that's what makes a fulfilling. And it's it takes vision and energy. But that's what makes it great. And it it oftentimes involves people that you love being around the most. And so that makes it awesome. Yeah. So for me early on I just like I just wanted to work. I like my first side job. I started a lawn mowing company when I was 14, and I'd put a lawn mower in the back of my dad's high. Boy, 1972 black truck, four wheel drive, and I could barely lift it in. And then he would let me drive it. Oh 14 and I would go mow lawns. That was my first business. I'm like, oh, my work people pay to mow their lawn like, this is awesome. And so I just have always loved it. And I'm like, well, if they'll pay me and I take good care. And so anyway, I think if you're exposed to it and if you like it and it's never been about the money for me it's been about like the it's like the thing I like doing. Yeah. So I think I've been pretty lucky. I feel sorry for people that aren't like, passionate about something they want to do. And I don't know how to. I don't know how you ignite that in them. And then some of it is, I hope that I'm being the role model that I had of work and of enjoying work and, Arthur Arthur Brooks is one of my favorite guys to listen to. And he actually just today, they just released it. He's on Rhonda Fitzpatrick's podcast, and I'm about two hours into it like that stuff on happiness. It's true. Yeah. Like the pursuit of happiness. And what makes you happy? I don't know how people do that without work and passion and things they love to do. So I've, I think I was born into it, and I think I look at my DNA like like my, my fan, like they were workers, they worked for fun. That's what they did. And they took care of people. I remember when I, as a young boy, my I remember digging trenches. I asked my dad, I said, how many, how many sprinkling systems do you think we put in? From the time I was eight till I was 16, he's like, what do you mean? I'm like, I have these vivid memories of us putting and sprinkling system for all the widows in our area and all the single people and people just. And like I said, did you ever get paid for that? Because I didn't get paid for digging all those trenches with that pickax. Did you screw me? Oh, yeah. Exactly. Just go like, what do you mean? I was I was raising it. He's like, no, I never did. Why would we have why would we have charged him to do that? And so you, you're around that and it's like, yeah. Just like just becomes part of you. I it feels a little bit like, like working out as I never, like, start a workout where you're like, yeah, hey, this is so fun. And there's in the first part, as you're getting into it, you're really at least me really unhappy about the whole thing. And then you kind of hit your groove. And then when you've actually done the workout and you're done, that's the reward at the end of it, you're like, okay. And then you're willing to do it again tomorrow and the next day. And I feel that like, that's similar with work as well. You just you kind of almost we almost need our parents to have, have started us there. And then we learn it like, oh yeah, this is what I want to do. I don't know if you'd never have done that. I mean, I feel badly, like you said, I feel badly for people who don't have that. You know, this. I mean, rob this from Arthur Brooks, but it's forcing yourself to do hard things because that's where the that's where satisfaction comes, right? It doesn't come from doing easy things. Yeah. It comes from doing hard things over and over again and building on that satisfaction. And that's how you build the that's that's truly the definition of true happiness. Right? Right. Happiness versus pleasure. Right? Right. Pleasure is easy. Happiness usually comes after doing something hard. Right? So sometimes you take on something hard. I take on something hard and I get into the first, like the part of it and I think, okay, it should at this point, there should be some I should feel happy about this. How do you manage when you get in the middle of something that you are still have passion for, but it's now beginning to just wear thin? I've heard has it maybe. Has that ever happened to you? Oh, it happens all the time. It happens all the time. I think, I think as you do this long enough, especially business. If you expect it to be brutal, you expect it to be hard. You expect to have challenges that you never saw coming around the corner, expected to cost you more money and take more time. It's almost like, okay, there's the next thing, I think, where you set yourself up for those feelings as if you think, oh, it's going to go well. And I and I've had that too. I mean, I thought, oh, this can be easy. And it's never easy for me to be honest. If we're doing it and it's going to be productive, you know, venture for us to do, it's going to be hard. So I think some of it's mindset and I know that might sound weird, but like, like we're starting this business with my daughter to talk to a little bit, right? Yeah. And I had a huge setback. I didn't I didn't see it coming as something that was really resolvable. But I'm like, why? Why is this hard right now? This shouldn't be hard. That was just last night when I kind of lost it in meltdown. So, I mean, I'm glad to hear you. Oh, I don't I completely like anyone that works around me. Like, there's, there's like, Yeah, it's it's it's hot and heavy because it has to be. But I think you're just setting that expectation. Yeah. It's hard. I the one other thing, I'll tell you, I have become really good. I wish I would have learned this in my 40s at really protecting my mornings. Like. Yeah. Like religiously protecting my mornings.

Because if I get up at 5:30 or 6: 16:53

00 and if I can control till 830 and I used to not do that, I used to just get up and go to work. Right. And I can do all the things that get me set in my right like I do my I won't go through my whole thing, but if I can have like that perfect morning most mornings and I and I know I'm up to 97% perfect mornings, I'm good for the day. Like bring it on at that point. If that doesn't happen, though, it's a different deal. Yeah. And, and and I get worn down and I'm not and I'm. And I can be a little cantankerous. I feel that. And for me, that whole morning routine starts with the night before. And I was such an early to bed person that I'm like, I protected people like, hey, do you want to do dinner?

I'm like, sure, how does 3: 17:34

30 sound? My friends are like, no, 100% though, right? It's almost like I can't have my perfect morning with the people going to bed on. Exactly. Because I need to have my, you know, I yeah, I got to take my magnesium and be in bed and have my shades down on my eyes and like, except for, I, I tell too many stories, but we just we had a look. My wife had a I have three big dogs on our farm, and my wife had a little puppy. And this puppy was the coolest. It was a King Charles Cavalier, you know, the cutest little thing. He was my favorite dog. Anyway, long story short that I don't want to cry or get into this. Like six months ago. He was by my side everywhere I went, even though he's this little, teeny ferocious little. Anyway, I ran him over doing chores in the morning and it like about killed me. I was like a basket case for weeks. But we just got a new dog two days ago. Oh wow. And he she loves me. Her name's Harley, but she sleeps on my head. So like the to the like. Like I told channel like the perfect morning. That was going to be harder because I'm not. Yeah. It's like having a baby again. Yes. Yeah. We we feel that. In fact, we recently forced our cat out of our bedroom because she was actually curling up with my husband. And, you know, we have our sleep scores that we. Oh yeah. Yeah. And then he's like, I'm up several times in the night and I don't I got like 72. I'm going to have a bad day. I, I'm like, honey I think it's the cat. And he was like yeah I think maybe. Right. So now she's yeah. She's been exiled a little bit. Yeah. Well I'm not I last night I think I played five times with her, but she's so sweet that it's okay but not. And I don't want to dwell on this, but it's interesting your time frame, because I. We may have lost dogs at the same time. Our beloved Bella died last fall. And losing an animal is so it's. And it's particularly hard because I think there are certain people in our lives that are like, well, you know, just get another one and you'll be glad you like. You have no idea. I honestly, it was so, not to go into it, but I honestly, it was like, so because they he the my my bigger dogs. So I got a lab, I got a, a griffon and I've got a, goldendoodle that are great dogs, but they're afraid of the cows. The little dogs. Not so when I go do that. When I said that, when I feed the cows in the morning, he's the only one with me. And on this day, I went a different route, and I'm out and feeding the cows, and I'm like, he's not with me. And I immediately knew. And I took off running. And I'm like, it was just devastating. Oh yeah. Yeah, this is hard. It is hard. You think about my older dogs. I'm like, gosh, I oh no, that's the hardest. Don't get older. They're just like my lab starting to slow down. And I'm like, I don't know. Animals are wonderful I know, I know wonderful. Yeah I agree they make life better. They make life better. So I'm going to just back up for a second. This is a question. This is why an hour went by fast. Exactly right. We just get the going here. And I love this. This is wonderful. I am curious, going back to little Tommy. Yeah. And have you always been Tommy? Yeah. The reason why is my grandpa is John Thomas Ahlquist. And he went by Jack. Okay. My dad, who's bigger than me, stronger. Faster. Big “S” on his chest. He was Tom, and he's John Thomas Jr. I'm John Thomas the third. So I was I was Big Tom's Tommy. Okay. And then my son, we were going to stop it at three like it was it. And so we told my grandpa we're like hey it's really hard once you get past three. It was our first child. She wants to kind of pick the name. And he was born in, February. And at Christmas time when he was still in utero, all the gifts had John Thomas the fourth. And so. So I was like, that was that. I remember I remember looking at her at that time like, son of a gun It's have it, isn't it? Anyway, so now there's four of us. Okay, so he's Thomas, I'm Tommy, and if you know my dad, you'd say, oh yeah, you're Tommy. Yeah. He's like the he's the general. Well, and it's interesting, I think people are sometimes you look at people, you're like, you're totally that. You're totally Tommy to me. Like I as soon as I'm like, oh yeah, although you're very tall, you're tall. Drink of water. So I think of Tommy's, I guess, in my mind as being younger, younger and littler. But what do you think of you think of Tommy Boy, right? Oh, yeah. Just a really right. That part does not match you at all. You know, what's crazy is when I read, you know, I can't even imagine. Now the memes are so harsh, right? Oh, yeah. When I ran for governor, you can only imagine the top oh, names that were out there. And it was. But nowadays it would be, like, even more brutal. Yeah. Anyway, I want to talk about that. But really quickly going back to little Tommy. Yeah. Let's talk. Let's think if you can remember back maybe 7 or 8 year old Tommy, what did what did Tommy want to do? Is there a was there a dream at that point in your life that you were like, I kind of want to do this? Yeah. So, I talk about this all the time because, I was I was so lucky. I grew up on a farm right next to my Grandpa Patterson and my Granny Patterson, like, in, in their field. So we tore down an old barn, and my parents built a house about that age. And then my uncle Josh was a year younger than me. So it was me and him. And we were like, as thick as thieves on everything we did. And we were on, like, the most idyllic property. And then I had my grandpa. Who is this? You know, he just was this guy. He he just was not for just me. Like. Like anybody that knew Matt Patterson would say, that guy's the greatest guy I've ever known. And he was my grandpa. So he would sit on a he would sit on him. My favorite picture of my shorts morning was he'd sit on this old rickety, like, lounge chair under a weeping willow tree and read Louis L'Amour books. Oh, and I would like that was him. And so you would lay there by him. And back then you didn't have electronics. Meaning. Right. I remember, like when video games came out, we're like, who would ever sit and do that? Like this? We had this great life. So that was me. But early on, he just was, he was the guy that would just tell you you could do anything like. And he would, he would talk to you about what do you want to do? What do you want to be? And that's back when you're like, I don't know, an astronaut on. And for me, I wanted to be a doctor. And like as far back as I can remember, the only exposure I had to a doctor cause everyone was blue collar. No one went to college. Everyone worked at the copper. Mine was Doctor Noel's, was our morbidly obese family doctor on the corner like jolly, bald headed, 350 pound white coat with lollipops on both sides. And I can remember thinking, what a great job. Yeah, they paid. They pay that guy to give lollipops to kids and fix people like, I want to do that. And I remember, like, just saying, I'm going to be a doctor. And him saying, yeah, you are now in reality, how on earth is a kid like me and Magna Utah, like, think you can be a doctor? But I always I just thought, I'm going to do it. Never once. I just knew all the way back from as little as I remember I to be a doctor. Interesting. And he told me I could. And my parents will make it on me. Okay. The reality, the reality hit later when I'm like, I don't know anybody. I don't know how to get a letter of recommendation. I don't know anybody. Like, what does MD stand for? I mean, there's a point at which you like, how can I do this? But yeah, that's not great. So I, I always wanted to do it. Went to college, then I, I went on a mission to Brazil for two years. And when I came back, I'm like, I got to get serious about getting into medical school because it was super competitive back then. And I went to Primary Children's Hospital, and I remember looking on a board thinking, I got to go meet doctors because I gotta have someone write letters of recommendation. I got to figure this out. And so I looked on the board and there was a phlebotomist. Well, if you think about this is in the 80s, you didn't have any way to look up what a phlebotomist was. So I went home and got a dictionary. Golly, wow. I applied for the job because was the only one that needed no no experience. Went home, looked it up and like, oh, it's it's some of that draws blood from kids. And then I just started meeting people and meeting people, and I and some of my best mentors in life were from that job to get into medical school. But anyway, again, I get off on a huge well. But you know what? There's that's painting a really cool picture for me because and it explains a lot because that's what you're still doing. Yeah, you are, you are a connector. You're somebody who who reaches that. You're not afraid to call somebody and ask for their help or ask questions or learn something. And you're you're very, your people. That's a technical term. People are willing to help you. Yeah. Like how flattering I this is one of the other things I always talk about. How flattering are you if if someone came to Carly Sam's or like, the owner of Sam's shows and said, hey, will you be my mentor? And it was a younger person trying to go through school or figure out life. You'd say, absolutely, yeah, people don't ask that often, right? They don't. So I think I think you just get in a position where like, I'm going to get to know them. I remember it's really, really funny because his name's his name's, William Banner and he is one of the nation's top toxicologist on kids. But he was at Primary Children's Hospital, and he was the pediatric ICU doctor. Like, he was the guy. And I remember thinking, I'm going to stalk this guy. I am going to. And he was kind of kind of gruff and like, I'm going to make eye contact with him. So I would sit with my little tray in the ICU, drawn blood, and I would just wait until he came into the ICU. And then I said, hey, Doctor Banner. And that's how I met him. So. So I just sat and then and then I'm like, okay, I'm going to go sit down and talk to him. And he became my he like said to me one day he's like, hey, do you want to run our lab like out of the blue? And I'm like, heck yeah. So he put me in charge of his his research labs when I was, you know, I was a sophomore in college, didn't know anything, and literally put me in charge of his little research labs and became one of my biggest mentors of life. But it was just from sitting there with that little phlebotomy tray waiting to meet him, and, and, I still think I get a little, little emotional because I love that guy. I still talk to him all the time. And he's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. He's in Tulsa, Oklahoma now, but that's how these things work, right. And then I think so then you get on the other end of your life, you're like, hey, I'll get back. You know, I we do a lot with mission 43. And just like anybody that like calls. Yeah, I'll clear off a business, meaning to just meet with someone and say, hey, how can I help you? Yeah, I do like that about you. I think that's amazing. I think that, and maybe it is the electronics or something with this rising generation. But I, I think that's a that's a skill to learn. If you are unable to walk up to somebody and not be afraid, stick your hand out and introduce yourself. I tell I tell you, I give talk a lot of talks to kids and I'm like, you're so lucky, I'll get it from high school kids. I'm like, hey, how many of you have a personality? They'll be like, looking around. I'm like, now how many of you are not afraid to go look some in the eye, shake their hand and work your ass off? Yeah. Because if you are, you're going to kill it. I don't care what you pick, just. That's all you need to do. Learn how to go shake your hand. Look someone like I talk to them, show genuine interest and work your butt off and you're going to kill it. Yeah. I'm always impressed when a young person comes up, looks me in the eye, ask me a question, gives me a good handshake. Yes. I'm like, I want to know you, kid. That's right, that's right. It's great stuff. Yeah, I've hired a couple of. I know it's another tangent, but I've had kids come in asking me to be a mentor, and I've walked in Ryan's office and said, we're hiring. I don't when the time comes and that guy needs a job, hire him. And a lot of you have me in a position for him. We've got two of them now that are just some of our best guys. But that's and you see, it matters. This stuff matters. Yeah. Really slowly. Absolutely does. Okay. So you then decide you're going to be a doctor can I you don't have to ask this question, but I'm just curious. Yeah. You, what school hard or what school like I'm not a test. So. So you know how this is when you go through, right? I learned early on I can outwork you, and I'll put all the time in, but I can't out test you. I was I never testing wasn't always easy for me. So you have to you have to have a 4.0 and you have to do well on the mCAT. You have to do I mean, especially if you're a white male Mormon trainee at the University of Utah. Like a little competition there. I mean, there's 18,000 of them, and they're going to take 20 of them, right? So but you have to test. Well, and I could never I could have never afforded to go to any other medical school. So I had one shot because I looked at $50-$60,000 a year. And I'm like that, I got one shot, it's $7,500 a year and I will bleed to get in there. So I had one shot and so I had to test. Well, but it but it was hard. I mean, I had to I had to study. And then you get then and you get into medical school and you develop these friendships with these people, become lifelong, just your own people. And then you realize, oh, Don doesn't even have to study that son of a gun. No. And you realize that, oh, they don't even like we're sit there watching Beavis and Butthead and like this, this. They would never deny this to today. But I was in this great group of. They're still lifelong friends of mine, but they would like snort. No dose and watch Beavis and Butthead and Butthead and drink Diet Cokes and then smoke the exam the next day. I never snorted, no sort of no dose, and I was over like, trying to study, like, tell them to shut up. So I was that guy. But but I did fine, but it was hard. I feel that I, I was pre-vet medicine. I never I didn't end up getting in. I tried for three years and then. But when I was in undergrad, I, we were it was we were doing histology, which is the study of tissues for anybody who doesn't. So it's a lot of microscope, like you're looking in at particular tissue. You got to tell if it's liver tissue or if it's heart tissue or if it's whatever. And I studied and I studied and I studied and this particular class, I think there were three major exams, and he would drop one of them. Well, I studied and studied. I got into the exam, I start, I start down the row, I'm looking in and I'm like, I can't, I cannot tell what any. Like I just it was gone. All of it was gone. And so after about 15 minutes, I turned my test in and walked out, knowing I was going to drop it. Well, everybody in the class, I became like this, like I was like, Holy cow, she is so smart. She finished in 15 minutes. Yeah, because you're that guy. You're that guy. What on earth you made everyone have afterwards? Like, friends were like, what happened? That's like, how do I tell them, do I not? Yeah. Anyway. And there may have been reasons why I didn't get into that school. I don't know, I'm not sure what they were. It's very strange. So you you didn't have a little career as a as a doctor. You were for 20, 18 years, 18 years. And it was it was awesome. Yeah, it was awesome. Quick story, because you telling me stories. I was going to be a pediatrician. And then, ironically, because people wanting to be pediatricians usually go to something else because they don't make any money. So they had a blue chip pediatric program to try to keep people in pediatrics. And but randomly I got assigned to Jeff Schunk Primary, the hospital, as my mentor, and my very first meeting. So he's a pediatric E.R. doc. He's like, don't do pediatrics. He's like, that's the stupidest thing you could ever do in your life. Going to emergency medicine. And he was right. Because you can you still see kids, but you can live anywhere and you make more money. And he had all these things like, he's like, you could live pick the best place on earth you want to live, and you can go. They all have ers. And so that's like I immediately went, oh, I'm not going to be patrician. I'll be in New York. It's it fit me right I love I love it. There's nothing better to take care of people. There's nothing like in business. The one thing I miss is it's a grind. But you have someone in their time of greatest need. Yeah. Like. And that may be my spouse just had a heart attack and they're getting CPR. That may be I had a loved one die and I'm having a mental breakdown. That may be I'm homeless. That may be I just got diagnosed with cancer today. But I still have questions. There's just like you think of all the things you go to an air for and you get to walk in the room, sit down. I always did that. I we sat down and look him in the eye and say, how can I help you? And and that that's pretty unique. And a lot of times what was on the chief complaint was not why they were even there. And the art was like, okay, can I figure out why you really here? Can I help you? And you get these like you'd see 20 to 30 patients a night. Think about that over a long time. And you just they all have stories. They're all the. And you see this different side of humanity. I did nightshift for ten years. And so you're in that team. You got it. The other thing about the years you got a team, I mean, I still see some of my nurses and my staff, and it is like a it's just like family, wonderful people. And so it was wonderful. It was really, really wonderful. I can only imagine the things that you as a team that you go through and all the emotions and, and sweat and blood and tears and all of it that you go to together, it has to be, you know, an amazing bonding experience, probably like nothing else. It is. And I think it's a way I think you're just like, I think first responders and paramedics, you're you're forced to face really bad things that can either cause trauma in or you kind of develop this, this way of compartmentalizing with your family that goes through it with you, which is those people. Right? Yeah. So the kid that dies, the horrible, they just there's horrible things that happen in in the air and you just kind of deal with it. But it's because you have that tight knit family that's all going through the same thing. So you're not alone. And that's kind of a weird thing. You're just never alone because you have these people that are with you. So it was it's a wonderful career now. Medicine's changed. We could talk forever about just how crazy it's gotten. Yeah, but the the, the the skill and art of sitting in front of someone and helping them, that's that hasn't changed. And it's awesome. Yeah. I've, I've heard various snippets of other podcasts and whatnot with you on it, and I and I really like the way that you take on questions. You seem very curious. So you're not you're not a black and white thinker. So if somebody brings something to you and says, hey, I think there's a study on this and I and, and everybody else maybe like you're up in that, that's crazy that you'll read the study and say, actually, I think there's some validity to this. I don't know all the details yet, but I think we should write this off, which I when I've seen that, I'm like, that's a unique thing in this world. I think sometimes I think we want to hold on to things and not be curious, just because maybe it's more comfortable. I'm I'm guessing I'm not sure exactly why we do that as humans, but to have somebody be willing to lead by saying this is a little uncomfortable, but we might be wrong on this. Guys, let's look at the data. We need so much more of that right now. Yeah, I think as we become so polarized politically and sometimes it's not even Republican Democrat. Sometimes it's like ideal ideology. Like, I don't know, urban rural whatever. I think we need to question things. I think we need to say, okay, what's true, what's really true, and who's kind of behind it. And and why is the messaging hitting me this way? And be open minded to that and listen to people and then try to develop your own opinion. I think that comes from being wrong, too. I think you're right. And that comes with age having enough wrongs where you're like, okay, I need to I need to maybe be quiet and think before I say something. Yeah. The one we don't talk about and this is not this podcast, talk about it. But you look at the the vaccine and Covid and the whole thing. I remember I was in the thick of that because we started across the curve. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, we started across the curve and I was in the middle of it. In the middle of it. I'm like, this sums up this. That makes sense. And now it's over. And no one talks about the fact that we really screwed up, Yeah. Or and just talk about what happened. Right. But why can't you say, hey, there was some big lessons to be learned, but they. No one can say that. Yeah, no one can say that. So that's the one I point to of like, oh boy, I was wrong on that. I was wrong on that. I was wrong on that. I was wrong on that. I should have asked this. And some of you didn't know, right? I mean, I was doing their best. Right? But I think that's why you should be vulnerable and say, hey, we were just doing our best, but hey, we really kind of missed a few things. Yeah. And then there's also big business takes advantage of almost everything. Yeah, right. That's fair. I mean, and why didn't why they were. Oh what, what what is the pharmaceutical company getting get out of this. I mean I think I think just as we, I get older I'm going to be not that I'm more skeptical. It's just like I'm going to try to slow down a little bit more. Listen a little more. Yeah. Do my own research. Be curious, be curious. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. So my daughter goes to NYU and there was a strike with the teachers, and she called and she had a roommate and they were talking. They were all up in arms about it, about whether they should go to class and be part of the problem if they if they attend class. And this was the teachers and it was I think they were non-tendered. Teachers were who were actually striking. And then the tenured ones were the ones who were the scabs were going to be in their teaching. And should we stand with the teachers? And so this whole conversation and, and the whole thing was very much so like, you know, the dirty birds of that, that aren't paying them enough money and all that. So I was the I was the parent. I know my daughter just loves it when I do that. But I was like, let's, let's talk about the other side. Let's just talk about it and try to understand. And then we ultimately were able to come to the agreement that there's there there are some ones probably too high, ones too low, they're going to meet in the middle, and this whole thing is going to get resolved. And it has and everything's going to be fine. But, but just the fact that she was, she didn't know whether she should go to class or not, whether that was going to be okay to do that. But it was a conflict that she wasn't even a part of. She's a student paying money to go to the school and anyway, it was an awesome lesson to learn. Yeah, it was interesting. It was it's and I think she did kind of slow down and say, okay, I kind of get. And then she was like, I don't want to talk about this anymore. Yeah, yeah. At some point it's like, mom, I don't want to talk to you about this. I love that she does like for me. Okay. So speaking about kids, can we shift gears momentarily and can we talk about this wonderful venture that you have done with your daughters, and will you tell us about it? And, yeah, I just have seen some of the some of the social posts about it. And I particularly love the girl dad. So yeah, so I am I am so lucky. I just, we have two biological kids, Thomas from Brooklyn. And then Shannon, I went through, like, a big infertility period for a long, long time and have the complete blessing of being adoptive parents. Two little girls, they have, different dads, same moms. Came with some severe addictions in utero that they had to deal with. And and it also was, it's a it was an a it's like for me like how it went down when it went down and all this like nothing. There was nothing chants about this like we were supposed to get these two girls and, I, even me coming to Boise. Oh, they just had their birthdays. And I was sitting there with them and I said, because, the one was born and then two years later, the next one was born with another dad, right. So and it's crazy stories how, how we got both of them. But I just said every once in a while I'll just, like, in my quiet time, think, what if I would have taken a job in Arizona, change the trajectory of everything? And then I just look at it and I'm like, I would have never been able to be your dad, wouldn't happen. And, I just love them so much, and they're just. And then, you know, there's difference between your boy kids or your boy and and kind of. And then your daughters or your daughters just love them. And then the next thing I'll say about daughters is, my daughter Brooklyn just has she has three, grandkids, and they're the best things. They're. Hey, mom. Oh, it's cash, Jack and Poppy. Great names. Oh, yeah. So Poppy is 18 months old, and she just went and got a passport photo last week. Oh, and it's this funny picture. And then my brother in law's a complete jokester. Turned it into a mugshot. So this is Poppy. That's my new screensaver. Oh, that's so great. Oh, that's so funny. Like, if he if she walked in here, she would melt everyone's. She would melt like. But when my daughter had cash, I distinctly there's like, moments in your life where you're like, oh, it happened. And she had her and I walked up and I just grabbed her. She was in the bed and she she was holding him. And I said, now, you know, right. Yeah. Because before that, you don't know. You don't know how much I love you until you have your own. And now, yeah, you get it in like two seconds now, you know? Yeah. So you love them like crazy, and then you try to do your best, and we screw up all the time as parents, man. Right. It's the job. Requires it. Yeah. And then you get older you're like oh man I really missed that. And so but with my daughters, Brooklyn is an asset and Ali's in that situation and Chloe is a lost soul. Help Charlotte listen to this. She's trying to figure out what to do, but, I have a mentor. I told you the story a little bit about Bill Whitaker, and, you're talking about talking about what we could do for our kids and what we should do for our kids. And he kind of challenged me and said, hey, you know, what would you do if they were boys? And he said you would start a business with them if they were kind of trying to figure out what to do. And I'm like, you're right. So we're starting a med spa together. And it's fun because it's medical. Yeah. And and they're so excited. And then we've hired some incredible people. It's been one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. And I can't wait. And you know, it's just fun. It's fun to watch your kids get talked about it already in this podcast, like that passion. And it's not just a job. I want to go do this and it's so cool and watch that ignite and I'm and watch and be little entrepreneurs. I just can't wait. I hope we break even. And I will, I will like they're going to get tired of me like like a couple things that are not funny anymore because they're like, if you bring up profitability one more time, we're going to kill you. And I'm like, yes, but we got to be profitable. And you know what that means? They're like, yes, dad. It means that we bring in more dollars than we spend every month. And I'm like, yes. And that number is this here's your monthly burn. So we'll we'll be fine. But, anyway, it's been wonderful, Carly. It's been so, so fun. We we named it Tarabella for three beautiful daughters, three beautiful daughters. And my name, it's it's been amazing. And these. Cool. I love the branding. I like it like, when I see it come up on Instagram, I lean right in. The name is enchanting. Your daughters are beautiful, beautiful girls. And they and their glow. And it's not just that they're physically beautiful. They are like beautiful beings. Like you can tell it. And, and then you as a girl, dad in and amongst them, so proud and supporting them and at you. I cannot get enough of it. It gets like though the other cool part of it is my one of my best, best friends in life is Pancho Romero. You should have one here. And he's, he owns advanced Heating cooling, and Kelso, he's a nationally. I mean, he's got thousands of employees. Great, great business guy, but his daughter is going to be part of it, too. So we got me and poncho and our daughters, and it's just like we look at each other and just like, this is the coolest thing we've ever done. Yeah. So ask me, like a year. All right. I think right now it's really cool. It's wonderful. I absolutely love it. Okay, I'm going to take a quick break to, recognize our sponsors, amigos. So this episode is brought to you by Zamzows, your local source for garden, pet and planet friendly products. As a thank you to our Nobody Knows listeners use code Ahlquist. And if you don't know how to spell that, then you are maybe not a voice in. So use Code Ahlquist at checkout at Zamzows.com and receive 10% off your online order. No discount applies automatically and is valid online only and excludes loan programs and also runs through June 30th, 2026. You can even buy online and pick up in store at any of our 12 Treasure Valley locations. So visit Zamzows.com and let's grow something good nobody knows like Zamzows. Hey, it's going to be surreal when I get to enter my code to go get my stuff right. I just thinking how awesome that is. That's pretty cool, by the way. You have the nicest people that work for you. You have the most way. Like, they are so wonderful. I always, though, I always think you would be wonderful because you're walking around, like, dealing with plants and animals and nice people all the time. That is true. But they are so nice and so knowledgeable and they so they just take you by the hand and walk you through everything. They're wonderful. Oh, I love it. Over years. Well, it starts at the top, right? I mean, culture is hard, but when you have it, you know you do it. It's great. Well thank you, thank you. I'll accept that compliment on behalf of the family, I, our employees are, I think they do love what they what they do, and I think that's part of it. They also care deeply. We all care very deeply. So, Yeah, it's I'm always very amazed at how they do and how they are. They how they love up our customers. It's so wonderful. They're really the face of the company more than anything because they're the ones that everybody's interacting with. So yeah, it's pretty great. So we're going to change to a little a little different speed here. This is sharing is caring. I've added a few little side ones in here that you may not be prepared for. So I'm excited about it. So here's my first one. How tall are you? I think 64, although I'm at that age where you start shrinking a little bit by 64. All right. Okay. That's good to know. I, I was trying to explain, like, I was telling people that we were having this podcast, and. And this is before you came in, and I was like, well, you're not you're going to recognize. And he's a tall drink of water. So that's good to know. You've clarified something. Are you a person who has dessert at the end of a meal? I don't ever have dessert, but I am an ice cream addict. So? So like ice cream at like a particular time of day kind of a thing. I would eat at any time, but but, Reed's dairy, another great Idaho company. Oh, good. And when I ran for governor, I really got to know the guys over there, the Reed's family and their incredible family. And so that's my. That's my secret addiction. Do you have a favorite flavor? I just last night, they. I went to get. We have a neighbor that got an accent, so we're taking him some ice cream. Yeah. And when I went in there, I got my own, but they actually had caramel Rocky Road. Oh. In a in a vanilla base. Oh. That's trouble. I guess I probably did not need to know that. It's so good. Vanilla Rocky road in a caramel rocky road in a vanilla base. It was an unbelievable read. Dairy ice cream can fix a lot of woes. I mean, you know, for me it just I could weigh 400 pounds if I wanted to. We do, we do. Okay. What is your favorite part of your own podcast? You know, it's it's another thing I, I'm talking I'm. This is preaching to the choir. It's it's hard in the middle of everything you're doing to do something else. That's quite, you know, it's it's a day and it's. But I love talking to people. I just there's nothing better than sitting and just, like, listening and someone I want to talk to, and I learn something from them, and it's magical. The reason I started is I ran for governor and I'm like, Holy crap, there's so many wonderful people that are normal people that I want to start telling their story. So that was that's how we started it. And it still rings true. Day. I keep trying to mix it up a little bit, and then I get really kind of all over the place about it. So I just told my guys last week, I just want to go back to like, I just want to have people on that. I want to talk to you. Yeah. I don't care what else happens because we tried to theme it this year and all this other stuff, and I'm like, let's just talk to people you want to talk to. Yeah, I think the audience wants to do that too. If I thought, yeah, if I find out you're interesting, they probably find out you're interesting. Yeah, I feel the same way. I, I love your podcast. It's one of my very favorite. I'm a regular listener. And also, thank you for the sweatshirt when I was on your podcast. I wear it all the time. I don't I kind of messed up on the size, but I love it because I used you need. I'm going to fix that today. Holy smokes. I wear it all the time. It's just oh, it's really big. Okay. So we need like a medium probably. Okay. Yeah. But I still love it. I don't deliver to you. I don't want to give up on the big one, though, because I love it so much. It's just like I can put all sorts of layers on. Okay, we're going to get it all right, all right. Very good. Okay. All right, so how about, a place in Idaho that always reminds you why you love living here? I we're really lucky we have a ranch up in McCall. And it's on the Payette River, so it's 800 acres right on the river, and it's an active cattle ranch. And, man, it is the place. So I like if I go to Hawaii or I go work, like, I get two days in and I'm like, okay, I go up there, I don't even know where my phone is. I just, I always have a jobs to do, right? So I'm out doing something and I love it. And I got my horses, I got my dogs and and it's just magic. And I think I. Boise, Idaho when I didn't realize when I took two years off and tour, I mean, I went around Idaho multiple times. This is an unbelievable state. So there's so many different areas you go to and you're like, oh, that's there's nothing like this. But for me it's McCall. I mean, it's at that ranch. It's that little valley, it's Chug Mountain in the background. It's our little pond. It's the smell of the river. It's the cottonwoods on the river. And sometimes I'll just sit there and look up in the sky and just get emotional, like, man, I can't believe I'm here. Yeah. This is so cool. I, I hope that young people have those experiences where you just sit in a situation and you get overwhelmed with your emotions. In being in a situation like that, you're not doing anything. You're just appreciating I this will sound crazy, but I love poetry. And so I think sometimes I'll get my mind in the right spot with some really great poetry, and then I'll just be having that as I'm working and then take some time during, like, whatever I'm doing, fencing or whatever. And we just got a couple places on the river. We just go sit and you just hear the sounds and you smell the trees and you smell the, the just the thing, and you look up and you're just like, oh, yeah. And at nighttime, you look up at that Milky Way and on a no moon night, if they're it's hard to not feel the presence of something that's not us. Yeah. We're so small. It's so true. That's interesting. The poetry connection with that, the feeling. Because I find that a really, really well-written poem. Yes. So, like, how did they come up with that twist of phrase and you're like that, and then you just have that moment and the same thing will happen with nature, same feelings, same like awe inspiring. Or you're like that, like somebody, somebody wrote that, but it came through them. Yes. You know, and and a gift like a gift to be able to express words that express things that. And so it's I think it's inspiring to like then think, okay, what does this world mean to me? And if I could express it, I don't have those skills, but I wish I did. Yeah, I've written, I've written my share of poems. They're nice to me to kind of like they're pretty simple. They're like this phrase with that kind of stuff. But I'm not deep at all. But they mean something to me. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I'm gonna be buried on that place, too. We it's it's like, I don't want to get to do more of it here, but, like, my wife knows, she knows that where where where they're digging a hole, and that's where that's where it's happening. It's an interesting we get to this point in our lives where, like, I know exactly where my husband remains, like where he wants to be. I'm married to his is illegal. So, like, he's going to ask if I'm the one I'm going to have to do something about what? I'm kind of hoping it's just Rafi, my daughter. Like you're going to have to deal with this. Maybe. Maybe do it with both of us. Just get us both over there and see. Anyway, it's in New York City. It's not legal to. So anyway. Okay, I don't know how we got here. I don't know either, but I love it, I love it. This has been a great conversation. We have one more question. This is the question that we ask everybody on the show. There are no rules okay? And you're a guy who can, you know, bend the rules, do it however you like. Okay, here's the question. What is something that nobody knows? I get it the whole play on the nose thing here, something nobody knows. I don't know, I think I think that it would be. It would be, it would be, it would be something that goes through my mind in quiet times. I think. I think that we all have insecurities that we that we cover up. I mean, you have to be confident, right? And I think I still have a lot of just worries about things. Right. But sometimes as leaders and as you know, you know, people that look to you for strength, you kind of just have to hide that all the time. So I think that nobody knows that I'm there's a lot of things that still scare me about life in the world and a lot of uncertainties out there. And I think you hide those, intentionally to be strong for everybody, but they're there. And, you know, it's probably good. As I get older, I'm more vulnerable. I think that's good to. You know, what's good is this podcast. It's great, but thank you for being thank you for being a guest on my show. I really appreciate it. Thank you for what you do. I, I really. Thank you for everything that you do. You really are doing a lot for this community. You're a gift. Your family is a gift. Everything that you do, all these efforts that you put forth, you're making a difference. And you have been for quite some time. And I suspect that we're going to still see some things here in the future with you. So, so it'll be fun to continue to watch. Thank you, Callie thanks for all you do. Absolutely. Thanks for being my friend. If you enjoyed today's conversation, follow the podcast and leave a review. Next week you'll hear from another incredible voice shaping Treasure Valley. Until then, thanks for listening.